The Elder Scrolls IV
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FAQ/Walkthrough (for PC & XBox 360)
v1.00 2006-05-01
Copyright 2006 Barry Scott "PapaGamer" Will
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was developed by Bethesda Game Studios,
published by Bethesda Softworks and 2K Games and is copyright 2006 Bethesda
Softworks. This guide is not endorsed by, nor is the author associated with,
Bethesda Game Studios, Bethesda Softworks or 2K Games.
This FAQ/Walkthrough does not include a Character Guide. You can find my
Character Build Guide at:
http://www.papagamer.com/faqs/oblivion_character.txt
This includes a complete rundown of all the skills, races, attributes and
birthsigns in Oblivion, as well as many class templates for your amusement.
A premium version of this FAQ is available. It includes maps, screenshots,
hyperlinked cross-references and more. See
http://www.papagamer.com/
for more information.
*SPOILER WARNING*
This guide contains plot spoilers. You have been warned.
To contact me about the guide, send email to:
barry@papagamer.com
Please include "Oblivion FAQ" in your subject line so I don't auto-discard the
message. Also, please read the FAQ carefully prior to asking for help on any
part of the game. If you send me additional suggestions or hints for the game
and I find them useful, you will be acknowledged in the Credits.
If you found this guide useful and would like to contribute a small token for
my efforts, you may send money through PayPal by using the Donate link found
on my Web site:
http://www.papagamer.com/
Thank you, and enjoy the guide!
Front Matter
Contact Information
Table of Contents
How to Use This Guide
*Sections without a code are incomplete*
Gameplay.............................................................GP00
Controls & Icons..................................................GP01
Game Mechanics....................................................GP02
Radiant AI...................................................GP02-A
The Leveled System...........................................GP02-B
Time, Waiting & Resting......................................GP02-C
Combat............................................................GP03
Main Story...........................................................MS00
Tutorial..........................................................MS01
Deliver the Amulet................................................MS02
Find the Heir.....................................................MS03
Breaking the Siege of Kvatch......................................MS04
Weynon Priory.....................................................MS05
The Path of Dawn..................................................MS06
Dagon Shrine......................................................MS07
Spies.............................................................MS08
Blood of the Daedra...............................................MS09
Blood of the Divines..............................................MS10
Miscarcand........................................................MS11
Bruma Gate........................................................MS12
Allies for Bruma..................................................MS13
The Wayward Knight (Cheydinhal)..............................MS13-A
Bravil.......................................................MS13-B
Anvil........................................................MS13-C
Chorrol......................................................MS13-D
The Battle for Castle Kvatch.................................MS13-E
Leyawiin.....................................................MS13-F
Skingrad.....................................................MS13-G
Defense of Bruma..................................................MS14
Great Gate........................................................MS15
Paradise..........................................................MS16
Light the Dragonfires.............................................MS17
Imperial Dragon Armor.............................................MS18
Fighter's Guild
Mage's Guild.........................................................MG00
Anvil Recommendation..............................................MG01
Bravil Recommendation.............................................MG02
Bruma Recommendation..............................................MG03
Cheydinhal Recommendation.........................................MG04
Chorrol Recommendation............................................MG05
Fingers of the Mountain......................................MG05-A
Fingers of the Mountain, Part II.............................MG05-B
Leyawiin Recommendation...........................................MG06
Skingrad Recommendation...........................................MG07
A Mage's Staff....................................................MG08
Ulterior Motives..................................................MG09
Vahtacen's Secret.................................................MG10
Necromancer's Moon................................................MG11
Liberation or Apprehension?.......................................MG12
Information at a Price............................................MG13
A Plot Revealed...................................................MG14
The Bloodworm Helm................................................MG15
The Necromancer's Amulet..........................................MG16
Ambush............................................................MG17
Confront the King.................................................MG18
Thieves' Guild
Dark Brotherhood
Side Quests..........................................................SQ00
Quest Index..........................................................QL00
Alphabetical Index................................................QL01
City/Region Index.................................................QL02
Expanding Your Game..................................................XP00
PC Optimization...................................................XP01
PC Console Commands...............................................XP02
Mods..............................................................XP03
Version History & Credits
To quickly jump to a section, copy the section code, press CTRL-F and paste
the section code in the search box.
Oblivion is a huge game, and very much freeform. You can spend 100 hours
playing the game and never touch the main quest. You can play through the main
quest a half-dozen times and never do the same sidequests twice. In addition,
some dungeons and quests are randomly generated. There's no way to write a
typical linear walkthrough for this game.
So here's how the walkthroughs are organized:
* Main Quest: First up is a step-by-step walkthrough of the main quest. The
main quest does advance in a fairly linear manner, so each step along the
journey will be laid out. Of course, you do not have to complete the main
quest in any sort of time limit and you can take your time and do lots of side
quests during the main quest. However, the Main Quest walkthrough will concern
itself only with the quests that are directly connected to the main story.
* Guild Quests: There are four "guilds" in Oblivion--Fighters, Mages, Thieves
and the Dark Brotherhood (assassins). Each guild has numerous quests
associated with it, and each has its own section in this part of the guide.
* Side Quests: Everything that doesn't fit into the previous categories is
organized here in alphabetical order by quest name.
Before all the walkthroughs is a rundown of basic gameplay in Oblivion,
including the controls, how the Radiant AI works, combat hints and frequently
asked questions.
At the end of the walkthroughs is an index of every quest in the game, with
the section number where you can find the mini-walkthrough for that quest. The
index is organized both alphabetically and by city/region.
A complete breakdown of the character system in Oblivion, including all the
skills, races, signs, etc. is in a separate document, located at:
http://www.papagamer.com/faqs/oblivion_character.txt
The guide wraps up with Expanding Your Game, which covers optimzing your PC to
run Oblivion well, using console commands (on the PC) for that extra edge and
mods (mostly for PC, but some for X360 as well).
The main point of Oblivion is to explore, have fun and immerse yourself in the
world. The game simply cannot be adequately covered in words, you have to
experience it for yourself. But, if you get stuck, feel like you're in over
your head, or just can't figure out how to do that one little thing...then
this guide is here for you.
[GP00]
~~The Elder Scrolls IV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GAMEPLAY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~OBLIVION~~
[GP01]
These are the default controls for the game:
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| ACTION | PC (keyboard/mouse)+ | XBOX 360* |
|------------------------+------------------------+------------------------|
| Movement | W, A, S, D | Left stick |
|------------------------+------------------------+------------------------|
| Camera | Move mouse | Right stick |
|------------------------+------------------------+------------------------|
| Activate | SPACE | A button |
|------------------------+------------------------+------------------------|
| Jump | E | Y button |
|------------------------+------------------------+------------------------|
| Run | Left SHIFT | Movement speed is |
|------------------------+------------------------| controlled by the |
| Always Run (toggle) | CAPS LOCK | force on the left stick|
|------------------------+------------------------+------------------------|
| Ready/Sheath Weapon | F | X button |
|------------------------+------------------------+------------------------|
| Attack | Left mouse button | R trigger |
|------------------------+------------------------+------------------------|
| Power Attack | Hold left mouse button | Hold R trigger + |
| | + movement key | move left stick |
|------------------------+------------------------+------------------------|
| Shoot Arrow | Hold left mouse button | Hold R trigger to aim, |
| | to aim, release to fire| release to fire |
|------------------------+------------------------+------------------------|
| Block/Bow Zoom | Right mouse button | L trigger |
|------------------------+------------------------+------------------------|
| Cast Spell | C | R button |
|------------------------+------------------------+------------------------|
| Grab | Z press-and-hold | L button press-and-hold|
|------------------------+------------------------+------------------------|
| Sneak | Left CTRL | Press left stick |
|------------------------+------------------------+------------------------|
| Journal | TAB; You can also open | B button |
| | a journal tab directly | |
| | F1 - Stats | |
| | F2 - Inventory | |
| | F3 - Spells | |
| | F4 - Map/Quests | |
|------------------------+------------------------+------------------------|
| Hotkeys | 1 - 8 | D-pad |
|------------------------+------------------------+------------------------|
| Assign Hotkeys | Press-and-hold 1 - 8 | Press-and-hold D-pad |
| w/Inventory Open | and click item | and select item (A) |
|------------------------+------------------------+------------------------|
| Game Menu | ESC | Start |
|------------------------+------------------------+------------------------|
| Wait | T | Back |
|------------------------+------------------------+------------------------|
| Switch View (1st/3rd) | R | Press right stick |
|------------------------+------------------------+------------------------|
| Vanity Mode | Press-and-hold R | Press-and-hold rt stick|
|------------------------+------------------------+------------------------|
| Quicksave | F5 | |
|------------------------+------------------------+------------------------|
| Quickload | F9 | |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
* XBox 360 Controls list courtesy of Styck and GOSFreak from GameFAQs.
+ The PC version does support gamepads; however, there are some problems with
the default control setup. Find your Oblivion.ini file (typically in
My Documents\My Games\Oblivion) and open this file in a *text* editor such
as Notepad. (Don't use Word or Wordpad or other word processing program.
Stick with a simple, plain text editor.)
Find these lines in the section headed [Controls]:
fMouseSensitivity=0.0020
;X = 1, Y = 2, Z = 3, XRot = 4, YRot = 5, ZRot = 6
iJoystickMoveFrontBack=2
iJoystickMoveLeftRight=1
fJoystickMoveFBMult=1.0000
fJoystickMoveLRMult=1.0000
iJoystickLookUpDown=6
iJoystickLookLeftRight=3
fJoystickLookUDMult=0.0020
fJoystickLookLRMult=0.0020
These are the default movement (left analog stick) and camera (right analog
stick) controls. Specifically, the Look (i.e. camera) controls may not be
set properly for your joystick. If moving the right analog stick has no
effect on the camera, change these two lines:
fJoystickLookUDMult=0.0020
fJoystickLookLRMult=0.0020
Increase the value of 0.0020 to something significantly larger, such as
0.5000. If the camera still does not respond or is sluggish, increase to
1.0000 and so on until the camera responds to the right joystick in a way
that works for you.
Additionally, you may find the camera movement does not correspond correctly
to the joystick movement: i.e. the camera moves up and down as you move the
stick left and right. In that case, switch these values:
iJoystickLookUpDown=6
iJoystickLookLeftRight=3
so that you have:
iJoystickLookUpDown=3
iJoystickLookLeftRight=6
You may also need to change some of these values completely depending on
your controller and your controller's drivers. You can set the buttons
within the Controls Options of the game.
| Icons
+-------
When in first-person perspective, the center of the screen is occupied by a
crosshair. When you move over a target, the crosshair changes depending on the
target.
* Face: NPC, Activate the NPC to talk to him or her
* Crown: plot critical NPC, Activate the NPC to talk to him or her
* Open hand: a loose item, press Activate to take the item
* Closed fist: something that can be manipulated (such as a door or switch),
press Activate to...well...activate the item
* Pottery jar: container, press Activate to open the container
* Door: a door, Activating may open the door or take you to another area
depending on the door
* Lock: a locked door or chest, you'll need to pick the lock or use a spell
or key to open the door or chest
* Moon and stars: a bed, Activate to sleep in the bed
* Book: a book or note, Activate it to read the item
* Stool: a chair, bench, etc., Activate it to sit down, press Activate again
while not targeting anything to stand up
* Horseshoe: a horse, press Activate to mount the horse, press Activate again
while not targeting anything to dismount
* Bat: NPC, Activate the NPC to feed on him or her (can only be used when you
are a vampire)
* Eye: inidicates you are in Sneak mode
Sometimes icons display in red. When you see a red icon, don't touch the item
or you'll be accused of a crime. Unless, of course, you're trying to commit a
crime, then go ahead and touch away...
[GP02]
Most of the basic gameplay elements are dealt with during the tutorial. How to
pick things up, how to drop them, how to equip weapons and spells, how to
Sneak, etc. But, there are a lot of things going on under the hood that the
tutorial never mentions. This section covers all those extra game mechanics.
| Radiant AI [GP02-A]
+---------------------
Radiant AI is Bethesda's name for its NPC scripts. NPCs in Oblivion are
supposed to "act like real people". At first, this really seems to be the
case. After a few hours invested in a city, you'll see it's just another bunch
of scripts strung together with some pseudo-random events to give the feel of
actual intelligence.
Here are some of the things the Radiant AI does:
* NPCs keep a schedule. Their schedule is occasionally randomized, but, for
the most part, these characters move around eating, working, sleeping and
other activities at different times of the day.
* NPCs react to crimes. Enter someone's house uninvited and they'll call for
the gendarmes. Hit someone and they'll scream, "Assault!" Etc.
* NPCs talk to one another as they pass on the street. After spending a couple
hours in a city, you'll have heard every variation on conversation there is.
(Since everything in Oblivion is voice acted, the number of conversations is
quite limited.) Sometimes, hearing these conversations opens up a new topic
for you, often leading to a quest.
Here are some things the Radiant AI does not do:
* Force you to keep a schedule. For the most part, if someone tells you to
meet them at midnight tonight or else, you can show up at midnight three
weeks later and they'll be there waiting patiently for you. There are very,
very few quests in Oblivion that actually require you to act within time
constraints.
* React to assaults on allies. The vision/hearing of every NPC in Oblivion
must be impaired. If you have two enemy mages on opposite sides of a large
room, you can blow one of them to smithereens while the other wonders
aloud about the rats. This does help with combat since you don't want lots
of bad guys swarming you, but it is kind of ridiculous.
* Care much about the world around them. There are scripted instances where
you can't get help from someone because of an Oblivion gate nearby, but,
for the most part, while the big, bad demonic invasion is happening, most
NPCs still just want you to kill (or protect, depending on the situation)
the rats in their basement.
So, don't get your hopes up to high over the Radiant AI. The NPCs in Oblivion
pretty much act like the NPCs in every other RPG, except they don't just stand
around waiting for you to show up (unless you're in the middle of a quest
requiring they just stand around until you show up--in which case they'll wait
for months).
And, even if a quest-target NPC is moving around, the convenient objective
marker on your map will always show you where he or she is.
| The Leveled System [GP02-B]
+-----------------------------
Oblivion uses a system that matches enemy levels to your PC's level. It does
this in two ways:
* Changes the type or number of creatures you face. For example, at low level,
the daedra you fight inside Oblivion are mostly scamps and the occasional
clannfear runt. At higher levels, you'll start seeing dremora, adult clann-
fear, atronachs, etc.
* Increases the level of the enemy. This is mostly used on boss creatures.
For example, the opponents you face in the Arena are always the same, but
their level, skills and equipment increase in power as you increase in
power.
The leveled system means you never get in over your head. Whatever challenge
you face is always scaled to your level, so you can do anything at the
beginning of the game. This is also a drawback, as being able to complete any
quest even at level 1 is somewhat unrealistic.
The leveled system also means you never overpower your opponents. There are
never any "easy" fights against overwhelmed opponents. When you encounter
bandits at level 1, they are clad in fur and wield rusty daggers. If you
encounter them at level 20, they are clad in mithril and wield enchanted glass
short swords.
Treasure and store inventories are likewise leveled. At level one, you can
fight for your life through a three-level ruin, dispatching dozens of undead
and come away with a grand total of 32 Septims, a flawed jewel and some
day-old bread. Going through the same ruin at level 10 can yield a couple
hundred Septims, some soul gems and an enchanted weapon.
The leveled system also affects quest rewards. Finish Fingers of the Mountain
at level 3 and the spell you get is, to say the least, underwhelming. Finish
it at level 25 and you get one of the most powerful spells in the game
(assuming you have the Magicka to cast it). A sigil stone collected at level 5
is a lot less powerful than a sigil stone collected at level 15.
(*NOTE*: PC users can download a mod that corrects this problem.)
The leveled system does present some problems, especially in the main story.
There are a few quests where you have to defeat hordes of enemies, and you are
given help; or, you have to protect someone from enemies. In these cases,
having a higher level PC works against you since your allies do not similarly
increase in power. The last thing you want is a dozen dremora overwhelming the
guards around you, then turning all their attention on you. No matter how uber
you think your gear, you're not going to survive that.
There are some ways to work around this system:
1) Increase your class levels slowly. If you work mostly with minor skills,
and only increase your major skills (and, thus, your class level) when you've
locked in +5 modifiers for your attributes, then you'll run far ahead of the
NPCs of similar level. For more info on the skill/class system, see the
PapaGamer Character Build Guide at:
http://www.papagamer.com/faqs/oblivion_character.txt
2) Play at a lower difficulty level. If a quest is just too hard, turn the
difficulty down until you complete the quest.
3) Use a modded leveling system (see the Mods section near the end of the
guide). This will allow you to level more reasonably without having to pay a
lot of attention to the math.
4) Use the Quest Reward Leveling mod (see the Mods section near the end of the
guide). This levels up quest rewards with your class level, so you'll always
have a use for those special gifts.
| Time, Waiting & Resting [GP02-C]
+----------------------------------
Time in Oblivion passes at the rate of 30 minutes for every one real minute
spent playing the game (not in Pause). So a 24-hour day takes 48 minutes of
real time to play through.
NPCs operate on schedules during the game day. Normal operating hours for
merchants are 8am to 8pm every day. In the cities, most of the rulers hold
court from 8am to 6pm every day. You can find a lot of NPCs at dinner in the
local tavern or castle dining hall around 8pm to 11pm most days.
The calendar is just like the Gregorian calendar, albeit with different names:
January - July - Last Seed
February - August - Heartfire
March - September - Frost Fall
April - October - Sun's Dusk
May - November - Evening Star
June - December -
Sunday - Sundas
Monday - Morndas
Tuesday - Tirdas
Wednesday - Middas
Thursday - Turdas
Friday - Fredas
Saturday - Loredas
The months have the same number of days as the Gregorian calendar, thus Last
Seed and Heartfire have 31 days, Frost Fall has only 30, etc. The game begins
the 27th of Last Seed, Third Empire, year 433 (7/27/433). You can see the
current date by turning on the debug console (tdt) and choosing page 0 (sdt
0).
What does all this mean?
Well, not much, unless you need to figure out an NPC's schedule. If a
character does activity X on weekdays, you know that means Morndas, Tirdas,
Middas, Turdas and Fredas. If it's currently Loredas, you've got to Wait two
days to catch the NPC. And so on and so forth.
At any time there are no enemies nearby you can use the Wait command (default
PC key 'T', XBox 360 button 'Back'). You can Wait in one hour increments up to
24 hours (one full day). Waiting any period of time, even just one hour, fully
restores your Health, Magicka and Fatigue. This is a kind of cheap way to heal
yourself up while spelunking--clear out enough enemies and you can just Wait
one hour.
You can also sleep, if you have a bed handy. The only times you have to sleep
are:
1) To increase your class level. Unless you're using a mod, or have turned on
instant leveling in your INI file, you must sleep in a bed to level up.
2) Certain quests require you to sleep in a bed. E.g. "Where Spirits Have
Lease" or during Dark Brotherhood quests.
An easy way to have access to cheap (i.e. free) beds is to join either the
Fighter's Guild or Mage's Guild. Just asking to join gives you a key to all
the guild halls, all of which have beds to sleep in. You don't even have to
perform any quests. Every city except Kvatch and Imperial City have both a
Fighter's Guild and Mage's Guild.
[GP03]
As would be the case in any adventure/RPG style game, there is plenty of
combat in Oblivion. Combat can be generalized into three types: Melee, Ranged
and Stealth. You can use magic or weapons in any of the types--yes, there are
plenty of touch spells to use in an up-close-and-personal way. Before getting
into specific tactics for each type of combat, there are some rules-of-thumb
that apply to all combat in Oblivion:
| Divide and Conquer
+--------------------
The combat in Oblivion is real-time and based on simple physics: if you swing
at the right time and in the right place, you hit. If you aim your arrow
properly, you hit. If you don't do these things right, you miss. There are no
dice rolls going on "in the background". Nobody stands around "waiting their
turn". If you get surrounded by three or more enemies, you're dead.
Fortunately, the developers, for the most part, spaced enemies out so you
don't typically walk in on a horde that's just sat down for lunch. Most rooms
have only one or two nasties in them. Larger rooms may have three or four, but
widely spaced out. You need to learn to draw enemies to you one (or, at worst,
two) at a time. Use arrows, ranged spells or jump up-and-down to attract the
attention of the closest to you, then turn and run back a ways so your foe
will foolishly charge after you, not waiting for his/her/its compatriots.
Once you learn how to deal with enemies in *very small* numbers, combat
becomes a lot easier.
| Variety is the Spice of Survival
+----------------------------------
Don't restrict yourself to a single type of combat. Have different methods
(melee weapons, ranged weapons, spells) available to you. Some enemies are
much more difficult to kill in certain ways. For example, the best way to deal
with a mage hurling spells at you is Me Smash! Trading fireballs probably
won't cut it (unless you were born under the sign of Atronach and are using
the opposing spells to regenerate your own Magicka, but that's advanced
tactics and you better know what you're doing...)
| The Better Part of Valor
+--------------------------
Sometimes, sneaking past is the best way to handle the situation, even for non
Stealth characters. And, of course, you can always run away and return later
when you've got new, fancier equipment (with enchantments!)
| Melee Combat
+--------------
If you're used to the charge-and-bash "strategy" present in many RPGs, it's
time to re-think your tactics. Oblivion is much more akin to standard
first-person shooters (which it emulates in gameplay) in which you must use
your brains before your brawn, no matter how well you've crafted your tank.
Simply charging into a battle situation is a good way to end up dead.
Even as a primarly melee fighter, you need to have an arsenal of ranged
weapons and spells at your disposal. They don't have to especially effective,
just enough to either draw enemies to you or to put archers/mages off balance
while you charge. It also doesn't hurt to have some Restoration magic handy.
Use magic between battles to heal yourself, saving the potions for
emergencies--i.e., when you're in the middle of combat and about to die.
You do not want to neglect your inner sneak thief, either. When approaching
large rooms, sneak up to the doorway and try to identify the enemies within.
You may be able to single them out with well-placed arrows, thus keeping
yourself from being ganged up on by three or four beasties.
The watchword for fighters in Oblivion: Patience. Remember, it's a virtue.
| Ranged Combat
+---------------
Ranged combat can be accomplished with a bow or with magic--mostly Destruction
spells, as that is the school with the most damaging ranged spells. Ranged
characters depend on Agility and Speed to stay out of range of melee foes.
Acrobatics is a good skill for this type of fighting as it gives you the
ability to jump up out of the way of the swinging sword and pepper your foe
while they futilely try to reach you. This works better outdoors than in
dungeons, but even some of the bigger caverns and ruins have lots of ledges
and cubbyholes where you can stand and fire away.
You'll want to invest some time in leveling up your Block skill and carry a
shield if using spells (archers can block with their bow). This will be your
fallback if you can't get away from the big nasty with sharp, pointy claws.
You'll not want to wear heavy armor, as it slows you down too much; you may
even want to stick with enchanted robes.
If you go pure archer, you'll tend to be at a disadvantage. You will want to
consider having some melee weapons to use in case of emergency--you can't
snipe everything in this game. Mages will be a little better off as there are
plenty of spells that can do as much, if not more, damage than the typical
melee tank.
| Stealth Combat
+----------------
Some players prefer getting the drop on their enemies, rather than trying to
duel everyone they meet. If you attack someone undetected, you score
additional damage--up to six times as much damage using an undetected melee
attack. Add poison and/or enchantements to your weapon, and you can rack up a
lot of one-hit kills this.
The downside? You must have a lot of patience, diligently level up your Sneak
skill and take your time going through every dungeon. Stealth fighting is not
for those who just want to get things over with. You also can find yourself at
a disadvantage if you get into a scrap with multiple foes. Since your fighting
abilities are designed for taking out one enemy as quickly as possible, being
surrounded puts you in a world of hurt.
In order to minimize your chances of being mobbed, you'll want to invest in
some ranged Destruction spells or the Marksman skill. You can use arrows or
spells to draw a single foe to you, then go into Sneak mode and take them out
from hiding. You should also invest in light armor skill, so you're not
totally defenseless if Sneaking fails you.
[MS00]
~~The Elder Scrolls IV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MAIN STORY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~OBLIVION~~
[MS01]
This "starter dungeon" is your tutorial for the game. It covers most of the
basics. You start by choosing your race. Later you'll choose your birthsign
and class. You'll be given the opportunity to change all of these at the end
of the tutorial.
| Imperial Prison
+-----------------
Wander around your cell, playing with the chains and listening to the dark elf
across the way taunt you. Soon, Uriel Septim himself, accompanied by some of
his blades, will show up and give you a way out. Follow them down into the
escape tunnel. You'll soon reach a place where the emporer is attacked and
Renault is killed--stay out of this fight, as you don't have a weapon or armor
and you can't change the outcome anyway.
Loot Renault's corpse for her sword and a torch and search the assassin bodies
for miscellaneous stuff (mostly potions). From this point, you can't follow
the Emporer's party, but there's a convenient hole in the wall to the
southeast.
Jump through the hole and watch out for rats. Thoroughly search this large
cavern. There are a number of corpses--one has several lockpicks and another
has a key to the exit door. The exit is to the southeast; the lock can be
picked if you haven't found the key. (The body with the key is near the door.)
| Imperial Substructure
+-----------------------
There's a zombie at the bottom of the slope leading out of the first room.
This will be the strongest foe you've faced thus far. Other than that bit of
excitement, you're mostly just fighting rats and collecting loot. Near the
exit is a goblin early-warning system consisting of skulls hanging from the
ceiling.
| Natural Caverns
+-----------------
Soon after entering the caverns, you'll get your first lesson in sneaking. You
can just sneak past the goblin, but might as well sneak up to him and give him
the business end of your weapon. Around the next corner is a tripwire. You can
jump the tripwire and then fight the goblin beyond it; or, try to run through
the tripwire and speed past the goblin, who will then take the brunt of the
swinging maces. Don't try this unless you have a Speed rating of 40 or higher.
You'll then want to advance carefully through the caverns, fighting each
goblin as you come upon it. Don't rush or you'll get two or three of these
nasty beasts on you at once and then it's reload time. Near the end, you'll
come upon a pile of logs at the top of a slope. Activate the logs to take out
the two goblins at the bottom of the slope.
Advance slowly down the slope to a very large cavern. There will be three or
four goblins in here, one of which is a shaman with a staff that shoots
eletricity. Use a bow or ranged spell to draw the weaker goblins to you, then
bull-rush the shaman. The tunnel exit from this room eventually leads into the
Imperial Subteranne.
| Imperial Subteranne
+---------------------
You come out on a high ledge looking over Uriel Septim and his bodyguards.
Jump down into the room and Septim invites you to join the party. During the
conversation you'll select a birthsign. Don't worry too much about your
selection, you'll get to change it later. Follow the emporer and guards,
helping with the assassins as they attack. You'll eventually reach...
| The Sanctum
+-------------
Soon after entering the Sanctum, Baurus and the other guard go to scout ahead,
leaving you to guard the Emporer in a side room. Uriel Septim initiates
another conversation with you, this time charging that you take his Amulet of
Kings to Jauffre, who will know where to find the last remaining son of the
Emporer. As soon as you have the amulet, a Mythic Dawn assassin jumps through
a secret door and kills Septim.
[MS02]
| Sewers
+--------
Baurus and the other guard return in time to help you deal with the assassin.
You can then talk to Baurus about Jauffre. Seems Jauffre is the Grandmaster of
the Blades--the Emporer's personal guard--and he bides his time at Weynon
Priory outside Chorrol.
Baurus also iniates your first chance to choose a class. Don't spend too much
time on it now, you can change it later (along with your race and birthsign).
He'll then point you through the door the assassin came through, saying it
leads to the sewers and freedom.
Follow the hall to the sewer entrance, then advance through the sewers. Soon
after entering, you'll come to a large room divided by water. There are two
exits. The left--north--exit leads to some loot guarded by goblins. The
right--southeast--exit eventually leads to the long tunnel out of the sewers.
About halfway down the tunnel you'll come to a gate. When you Activate the
gate, you'll get a menu allowing you to change your race, birthsign or class
or exit the sewers.
*SAVE YOUR GAME*
You may even want to use the console command SaveGame to create a
specially-named save. Never delete this savegame. Whenever you want to start
the game over with a "new" character, just load this savegame and change your
race, birthsign and class, then exit the sewers. You never have to go through
the starter dungeon again. (Well, unless you go through the Dark Brotherhood
quests, but that's different.)
When you're happy with your choice of character, exit the sewers. You find
yourself looking out over a river toward some ruins. Behind you rises the
Imperial Prison and, beyond that, Imperial City itself.
| Imperial City
+---------------
You can, if you like, immediately Fast Travel to Weynon Priory; however, you
will probably want to stop in Imperial City and sell off any useless items you
collected in the starter dungeon. The main story beckons, but so does the
entire land of Cyrodiil. To quest, or not to quest, that is the question.
There are several reasons for starting the main story right away and leaving
everything else until later:
1) Several times during the main story you will be required either to protect
an NPC or fight a pitched battle against hordes of daedra with the help of
other NPCs. If you wait until you are higher level, the daedra you fight
will also be higher level. Alas, the NPCs around you will not. Once you get
into the late teens in level, the daedra you fight will have your allies
for lunch and come looking for you as dessert.
Fighting a mob of mid-level daedra isn't healthy. Not at all. You could
wait until your power rivals the Nine (around 35th or 40th level), at
which point the daedra you face simply can't keep up and you'll mow them
down with ease. That doesn't necessarily help in the "protect the NPC"
quests, though.
At low levels, the daedra that spew forth from Oblivion are also low-level
and your allies can pitch in and actually do more than contribute to some
demon's indigestion. In this case, the leveled system works as intended and
keeps the tasks challenging, but not impossible.
2) If you do a little bit of the main story, up to taking Martin back to
Weynon Priory, you'll start the part of the game where random Oblivion
gates pop up around Cyrodiil. If you get up to that point in the main
story, then go side questing for a while, your way will eventually be
impeded by all the daedra roaming the countryside. Better to get to the
end of the main story and clear all that up.
3) When you finish the main story, you are proclaimed the Champion of Cyrodiil
and everyone loves you. Literally. You get a big Disposition increase with
all the NPCs, which makes all the side quests (many of which require a
high Disposition score with an NPC somewhere along the way) much easier.
No mucking about with the Disposition mini-game, or Charm spells or any
thing like that. Just chat with the people and they'll do whatever you want
or tell you anything you want to know. Makes the side quests a breeze.
4) A lot of the rewards for side quests are special enchanted items that are
keyed to your level. The higher your level, the more powerful the item. If
you collect all this junk at low levels, that's exactly what they will be--
junk. (PC users can download a mod that fixes this problem. See the Mods
section at the end of this guide.) Better to do all these side quests later
and get the uber leet gear instead of the fancy baubles.
Of course, you can ignore the voice of reason and go off side questing, in
which case, just skip on down to the section you want to see. For those of you
with a bit more wisdom, Fast Travel to...
| Weynon Priory
+---------------
Weynon Priory is located southeast of Chorrol. You can Fast Travel there from
the beginning of the game. Jauffre is typically found upstairs in the main
priory house, usually sitting at his desk. Talk to him for a history of the
kings, the dragonfires and Oblivion. He'll also point you to Septim's lone
surviving heir, Martin, who serves as a priest of Akatosh in Kvatch.
Jauffre will take the amulet and charge you with finding Martin and bringing
him to Weynon Priory. After, ask Jauffre about assistance. He'll open his
chest and you can loot it for better armor, weapons and other things.
Downstairs, talk to Prior Maborel, who will offer the loan of his horse.
Accept, with thanks.
You now have some decent equipment and a horse, the world is yours! Or you can
get on with your mission to Kvatch.
[MS03]
| Outskirts of Kvatch
+---------------------
When you reach the outskirts of Kvatch, you find the city in flames. To the
south is a refugee camp, where you get the full story of daedra spewing forth
from an Oblivion gate. Questions about Martin lead you to Savlian Matius,
captain of the Kvatch guard, who is holding the line against the demons at the
entrance to Kvatch.
Wind your way up the hill and find Matius and a few troops fighting daedra.
(The specific type of daedra depend on your class level.) Pitch in, if you
wish. When the fighting is over, talk to Matius, who tells you Martin is holed
up inside the chapel in the city. Your only hope is to find out how to close
the Oblivion gate, so the soldiers can retake the city.
[MS04]
| Oblivion: Kvatch Gate
+-----------------------
Welcome to your primary task in the main story of Oblivion. You will soon grow
to hate Oblivion gates. Ah well, no better time than the present. Step up to
the glowing portal and Activate it and go to hell.
Literally.
Fire resistance is a good thing. Fire spells--not so good. Almost everything
you encounter in Oblivion is resistant to fire, but weak against shock damage.
Load up on shocking spells, or shock-enchanted weapons. (Funny--you would
think the weakness would be to frost. Anyway...) If you start encountering
Flame Atronachs, you can use frost against them. (Similarly, use fire against
Frost Atronachs. Against Storm Atronachs, use anything other than shock.)
As you enter Oblivion, you'll find a Kvatch guard under attack by daedra. If
the guard survives--his name is Ilend Vonius--talk to him and either send him
back to Matius, or ask him to come along and watch your back. Ahead of you
(north) is a bridge blocked by a gate. To the east is a dead end. Your path
lies to the west.
First note about Oblivion: these areas are all very linear. If you get lost,
just look at your map. There's usually only one way you can go.
Wind your way around the west side of this island, until you reach the
northwest section. Then you head back south--and a little east--eventually
reaching the large round tower in the center of the north sector of the
island.
This is a Sigil Keep. You'll get to know these well. This particular keep is
called Blood Feast. Lovely, ain't it? All Oblivion towers follow the same
basic layout:
* The tower is hollow in its center, with a Sigillum Sanguis at the top. To
reach the Sanguis, you have to climb through one to three side areas.
* Most Sigil Keeps have two side areas: Rending Halls and Corridors of Dark
Salvation. These areas are relatively small, feature a few daedra, and the
occasional trap.
* In between the side areas, you'll climb some ramps around the central hollow
center of the tower.
First up in Blood Feast, as in most Sigil Keeps, is the Rending Halls. Enter
and climb the ramp, which takes a 90-degree turn. At the top, kill the daedra
and use the Blood Fountain for some health regeneration. Re-enter the tower
core through one of the two doors to the south.
Climb a ramp around the tower core to reach an entrance to the Corridors of
Dark Salvation. Wind your way up the ramp to a large room and dispose of the
daedra. The only unlocked exit from this room (besides the hall you just came
through) is to the west. This leads to a bridge over to a smaller tower.
In the small tower (Reapers Sprawl), climb the ramp and kill the Sigil Keeper.
Take a key from his body. Inside a cage is another Kvatch guard--still alive!
Talk to him to learn what you must do: enter the Sigillum Sanguis at the top
of the tower and remove the sigil stone. That will close the gate.
Go back to Blood Feast. You can now leave this room through either the north
or southwest door. The southwest door eventually leads back to the tower core,
but on a dead-end balcony. There is some loot here (in bloody hunks of meat
called "The Punished"). The north door leads to a ramp that curves to the
east.
At the top of the ramp, you'll see another ramp going down to the east and a
door to the south. The door goes to your objective. The ramp going down
eventually leads to another small tower, with some minor loot. Leave through
the south door at the top of the ramp, re-entering the core of Blood Feast.
Wind your way up the ramps to what looks like a dead end.
Find the round platform surrounded by spikes. It's a teleporter (only a few of
the Sigil Keeps have these). Step on it, Activate one of the spikes and you'll
reach the level where you can enter the Sigillum Sanguis.
All the Sanguis you enter are round rooms with three levels--you always enter
at the bottom of the room and the sigil stone is always at the top. Of course.
Fight your way up the stairs, and then up a ramp. When you reach the sigil
stone at the top, simply Activate it.
Things blow up. Lots of flashing. You're back in front of Kvatch with only a
burned out relic to remind you of the lovely Oblivion gate. Find and talk to
Matius. He wants you to come with them as they fight through to the survivors
in the chapel.
| Kvatch
+--------
*NOTE*: The only way to get Martin out of the chapel is to let Matius and his
men go in, going with them, and kill all the daedra inside the gates. If you
try to go it alone, the daedra keep respawning and you can't get the survivors
(including Martin) out of the church.
Charge into Kvatch with Matius and his men and kill daedra (about four or
five). Once you get a message that all the daedra are dead, enter the Temple
of Akatosh. Matius will get a report from one of his guards inside the temple,
and the survivors will head out to the refugee camp--Martin among them.
You have a couple of choices:
* Buttonhole Martin now and convince him to go with you to Weynon Priory. You
then leave Matius and company to their own devices (which is to stand around
and do nothing).
* Let Martin go on down to the refugee camp. You can find him there later,
perfectly safe, and have your heart-to-heart with him then. This frees you
up to do the "Battle for Castle Kvatch" sub-quest.
Regardless of what you decide to do, you must talk to Matius to officially end
Breaking the Siege of Kvatch. Matius will ask for your help re-taking the
Castle of Kvatch and finding the count. This is an optional sub-quest that
relates to the optional "Allies for Bruma" quest that comes later on. This
quest is covered under "Allies for Bruma", so if you want to do it now, skip
down a few sections and get the low-down on your tasks.
*NOTE* It is possible to do everything in Kvatch before ever visiting Jauffre
at Weynon Priory. But, if you do that, you won't be able to recognize Brother
Martin (he'll be labelled as a generic priest) and you won't be able to talk
to him about being the heir to the throne. If you do break the siege before
talking to Jauffre, you'll have to go talk to him, return to the refugee camp,
and there you will find Martin wandering about.
[MS05]
When you're ready to get on with the main quest, talk to Martin and then Fast
Travel to Weynon Priory. (You do not want to walk all that way when leading
someone. They never run and it will take a long, long time.)
You arrive in the middle of an attack. The Priory's shepherd runs up, with a
Mythic Dawn assassin on his heels, and fills you in. Maborel is dead. (Yay!
His horse is, ipso facto, yours now!) Jauffre is holed up in the chapel. Kill
the assassins outside (with Martin's help, Brother Piner will join in as
well), then enter the chapel and kill the assassins inside. You must keep
Martin and Jauffre alive, else it's reload time.
Once the assassins are dead, Jauffre thinks of the Amulet of Kings. Follow him
to his loft room so you can be there to witness the look of shock on his face
when he finds the Amulet is gone.
Yeah. Never saw that coming.
Jauffre decides the safest place for Martin is the headquarters of the Blades:
Cloud Ruler Temple. The temple will be marked for you on your map and you can
even Fast Travel there. (Hooray!) When you arrive, Martin is introduced as the
Emporer, gives a little speech and heads off to settle in. Jauffre offers you
membership in the Blades. Go ahead and accept--especially if you are a heavy
armor fighter. There's a full set of kit (helm, guantlets, cuirass, greaves,
boots, shield and katana) for every Blade. This equipment is the equivalent of
steel armor, so it's pretty good if you're still low level.
This isn't really a quest. You get no journal entry, and there are no rewards
(beyond any normal loot you may collect). You don't even have to worry about
this at all; however...
Once you go to Weynon Priory, the main story advances to the point where
Oblivion gates begin popping up in random spots around Cyrodiil. The further
you are in the main story, the higher the chance a gate will open in whatever
region you are in.
These gates not only open in random places, they point to random Oblivion
worlds. All Oblivion worlds are roughly the same, but there's no way to
predict the exact layout you'll get when going through a gate. Enter at your
own risk.
You can:
* Ignore them. When you finish the main story, they will close automatically.
You'll still have whatever daedra came out of them to deal with, but that's
just a nuisance. (Especially since the first daedra to come out will be
commensurate with your level at the time the gate opened--not your level
when you come back through to sweep the area clean.)
* Close them. They don't stay closed. But if you want the extra experience
and/or loot and/or alchemical ingredients found only in Oblivion, then you
can go in and close them (temporarily).
[MS06]
Once you've settled in, talk to Jauffre. He wants you to track down the Mythic
Dawn and find the Amulet. He points you to an old friend, Baurus (the guy who
failed to properly guard Uriel Septim), who is hanging out at Luther Broad's
Boarding House in Imperial City.
Luther Broad's is in the Elven Gardens district. You can Fast Travel there, or
walk/run/ride. Your choice. During normal hours, Baurus is sitting at the bar
in Luther's place, having a pint (or two or three). Check out the guy sitting
over in the corner, name of Astav Wirich. This will be your target.
Have a seat next to Baurus (target the stool and Activate it) and have a
little chat. Baurus has been intelligence-gathering and now he's being
followed. He wants you to help him pin his shadow. Baurus will get up and
leave, heading down to Luther's basement. Wirich will get up and follow him.
You do the same.
Once down in the basement, Wirich transforms himself in to a Mythic Dawn
assassin. Help Baurus dispose of him. Frisk the body to find a book: Mankar
Camoran's Commentaries on the Mysterium Xarxes, Book 1. (This is a skill book,
and will increase your Conjuration skill by 1 when you read it.). Talk to
Baurus about the book. He suggests taking it to Tar-Meena, at the Arcane
University.
Go to college. If you're a member in good standing of the Mage's Guild (i.e.
you've completed enough of their tasks to have access to the University),
you'll find Tar-Meena in the library. If not, she'll be hanging around in the
lobby, just in case a visitor with a strange book happens to drop in and need
help.
Show her the book and she'll tell you this is the first of four Commentaries.
She supposes having all four commentaries will reveal the location of the
Mythic Dawn's headquarters. She just happens to have Book 2 (skill,
Destruction +1) and suggests the bookstore First Edition in Imperial City for
the other two.
Go to the Market District of Imperial City. First Edition is located on the
main SW to NE street near the gate to Green Emporer Way. Talk to Phintias, the
merchant about the Books. Yes, he just so happens to have Book 3, but another
customer has already reserved the book and he's holding it for this person.
Gwinas is the key to both Book 3 and Book 4. He's coming to buy Book 3 and he
has a note setting up a meeting at which he'll receive Book 4.
You have several options:
1) (Preferred): Wait in First Edition (you won't have to wait long), fo
Gwinas to show up. As soon as Gwinas has bought the book, corner him and
reveal to him the Mythic Dawn is the group that killed the Emporer. Gwinas
will re-think his idea of joining the cult, give you Book 3 (skill,
Illusion +1) and the note about the meeting.
2) Get Phintias' Disposition north of 70 and he'll sell you Book 3 without
waiting for Gwinas to come get it. You'll still have to get the note from
Gwinas, which you can do by confronting him as in option #1. Since Gwinas
will give you Book 3 free, but Phintias won't, option #1 is better.
3) Follow Gwinas back to his hotel, and either pick-pocket Book 3 and the note
from him, or kill him and take them from his corpse.
*HINT* Visit Edgar's Discount Spells in the Market District and pick up a
Convalescence spell. (Convalescence allows you to heal a target.) Very useful
for keeping NPCs alive during the tasks ahead.
Once you have Book 3 and the note, return to Baurus. He'll tell you he knows
exactly where this meeting is to take place. Follow him to the Elven Gardens
district and a sewer entrance. Baurus leads you on a winding path through the
sewers, impeded by the occasional rat, mudcrab or goblin.
Finally, he'll stop and tell you the meeting is to take place just beyond a
door. He suggests you go up some stairs to the left and spy on the proceedings
from above. You can either aquiesce or demand to be the one who has the
meeting and Baurus can be the cover. Either way works.
The meeting is with Raven Camoran, Mankar's son. Not long into the meeting, a
couple of assassins find whoever is handling backup duty on the upper floor
and your cover is blown. It's a 3-on-2 fight, unless you let Baurus get
killed, then you're in trouble. Once all the assassins are dead, loot Raven's
corpse for Book 4 (skill, Mysticism +1) and a key to another exit from the
sewers.
Talk to Baurus (if he's still alive). He's going to Cloud Ruler Temple to take
up his duties under Martin. You need to get out of the sewers. Use the key you
took from Raven to go out the way he came in and loot their hideout. If you
keep heading north, you'll reach the Talos Plaza sewers, which is a slightly
shorter way out; but, hasn't been cleared of enemies (and you're on your own
now). You can also go back the way you came in--if you can remember which
turns to take.
Once out of the sewers, return to Tar-Meena at Arcane University. She'll say
she has to study the books in order to find the hidden message. It takes her
three days to figure out the hidden message, which is "Green Emporer Way Where
Tower Touches Midday Sun". (Read the first letter of each paragraph of each
book.)
You don't have to wait for Tar-Meena. Go to Green Emporer Way (middle section
of Imperal City, where the palace is located). The palace is surrounded by a
cemetary and you're looking for the tomb of Prince Camarril. His tomb is
located in the southwest portion of the district. It's not marked on your map;
look for a large, domed tomb and target the door to find out if it's his.
Once you've found the tomb, Wait until the 11:00am hour and then sit and wait
for the light show to begin. When you see a glowing map appear on the door of
the tomb, step up close enough to get the message you've found the
headquarters of the Mythic Dawn.
Mission accomplished.
[MS07]
Your next step is obvious: invade HQ and get the Amulet of Kings back. You can
return to Cloud Ruler Temple if you wish, but Jauffre and Martin aren't going
to tell you any different.
The Lake Arrius Caverns now marked for you on your map are northwest of
Cheydinhal, so Fast Travel there first. The caverns are on the north shore of
Lake Arrius. When you enter, you'll meet a non-hostile Mythic Dawn member.
He'll give you a passcode and you give him the reply. He then instructs you to
proceed through the door and see Harrow.
Now, before you actually go any further, you need to know some things. If you
play this undercover, you'll be stripped of all your non-quest items such as
armor, weapons, potions--*everything*. Or, you can try to bull your way
through, which means fights with a *lot* of Mythic Dawn assassins. Here's the
rundown for each method:
1) You're going to play it "safe", so you decide to continue the deception.
This is a good choice for a very low level character. Before continuing,
Fast Travel back to Cheydinhal and stow your gear. You can join the Fighter
or Mage's Guilds just by asking and get a free place to stash your wares.
You can't drop gold, so use it to buy potions and other good stuff, because
you don't want to just give it to Harrow.
Alternately, you can drop everything on the floor of the entrance room of
the caverns, but it will be hard to pick it back up when you come flying
through later with a dozen assassins on your tail.
Fast Travel back to the caverns and go through the door to your meeting
with Harrow. Harrow will lead you to the main shrine and you'll hear
Mankar Camoran himself give a little speech before disappearing into his
own little "Paradise". He takes the Amulet of Kings with him (you didn't
think it was going to be that easy did you?), but leaves behind the
Mysterium Xarxes, which could prove useful.
Harrow will lead you down and tell Remora Camoran (Mankar's daughter) that
you've come to be initiated. She'll invite you up to the dais and offer to
let you kill the Argonian tied to the altar. Regardless of what you do with
the Argonian, you're going to end up in a fight.
The wisest course of action is to agree to kill the prisoner, take the
silver dagger laying next to the book, then Activate the prisoner to free
him. Grab the book from the altar. Now everyone in the room has gone
hostile. It's time to run, crying like a baby.
You can't get out the way you came in. Your exit is up the stairs you came
down, but turning to the right rather than the left. At the top is a door
that leads to the Living Quarters. Head through the door and skip down
to the Living Quarters section below.
2) If you're a little bit higher level, have decent kit and don't want to
risk losing it, you can probably fight your way through to the shrine.
Kill the guard in the entrance cavern and get a key from his body. This
key will open the door into the next cave--just a tunnel, with possibly
one cultist.
The door at the end of the tunnel leads to the Shrine Antechamber. Read
these directions carefully--you do not want to stop long enough to fight
anyone, as that just brings hordes of cultists down on your head. And you
can't handle hordes, no matter how high level you are.
As you enter the Antechamber, you are in a large room. Your path is to the
south. Book it to a tunnel and take the first left. You're going to have
cultists nipping at your heals. Equip a healing spell and cast it as you
need it. The key you got from the entrance guard should unlock the door
here leading to the shrine. If you reach the end of the tunnel, where it
turns right (east), you went too far. Good luck trying to turn around and
go back.
As you enter the shrine, a gate drops behind you, shutting off pursuit.
You're on a high ledge looking over the altar. No one will notice your
presence as you listen to Mankar Camoran's speech and watch him disappear
with the Amulet of Kings. Once he's gone, you're in excellent position
to snipe at the cultists below with arrows or spells.
They will eventually respond, running up the stairs, but you should be
able to get themm one or two at a time, which is manageable. Once they are
all dead, you can descend to the lower level, free the prisoner, and get
the Mysterium Xarxes from the altar. You can't go back the way you came,
so go up the stairs, taking a right instead of a left, and take the door
at the top into the Living Quarters.
| Living Quarters
+-----------------
Whether you're fully suited up or wearing only a red robe and carrying a
dagger, there's only one way through here: running for your life. The Living
Quarters are full of cultists, many of whom will use hit-and-run tactics.
Stopping to fight just means getting beaten by as many as a dozen Mythic Dawn
assassins at once. You can't survive that.
So, running it is. Get a healing spell ready, sheathe your weapon (if you have
one) and start pumping.
From your entry point, run down the tunnel and take a right at the end. Take
the next left and run until you can take a right turn. This leads into a room
with two or more cultists. The exit is to the southwest--as you enter the
room, take a hard left and hug the wall to find your way into the escape
tunnel.
This tunnel will turn south (left) and deposit you in a large room with at
least two assassins. Take the stairs to the west (to your right as you come
into the room) and run around the upper level to the exit in the southeast
corner of the room.
This tunnel turns south, then east and dumps you in another large room. You
may find up to a dozen cultists in here having "worship services". Lucky you.
The exit is in the middle of the south wall, so take a right as you come into
the room and run through the middle of the mob to make your escape.
This is a short tunnel that slopes up. At the top, turn left to find a door
that leads back into the entrance cavern. Run down this tunnel to a small
room. The exit tunnel is to your left (east). At the start of the tunnel is a
turn-lever on the wall. Activate it to open the secret door just ahead and run
through into the main entrance to the caverns. The exit to the outside world
is straight ahead.
As soon as you are outside, attempt to Fast Travel. If you were quick enough,
you got out before any cultists and you'll be able to Fast Travel. If you get
the "You cannot travel while enemies are near" message, then start running
again in the direction of Cheydinhal. Speed is your only concern now.
Once you are safe and have re-equipped yourself (if you decided on the
undercover method), you can think about going back to the Caverns and
methodically cleaning them out. There's a lot of loot in there. Or you can
just count yourself lucky and Fast Travel to Cloud Ruler Temple. Martin wants
that book you stole.
[MS08]
Back at Cloud Ruler Temple, find Martin (he's usually in the main hall) and
give him Mysterium Xarxes. He gets pumped over getting into a little dark
magic, then sends you to Jauffre, who's got some "concerns". Jauffre, indeed,
is concerned. It appears strangers have been loitering about the Temple; but,
despite having a huge building full of fighters, Jauffre can't spare anyone
but you to check into it.
Funny. Anyway, Jauffre refers you to Captain Steffan of the Blades or Captain
Burd of the Bruma constabulary. Your quickest route through the task ahead is
to track down Steffan. He's usually patrolling, during the day, follow your
quest marker to find him. He reports some strangers hanging out around a
runestone just south of the Temple.
Walk down the slope to the runestone (it's kind of hard to miss, since it's
big and has glowing runes on it). Take up position near the stone and Wait
until dark (around 7 or 8 p.m.). You'll soon be attacked by two Mythic Dawn
assassins, who shouldn't be too much trouble to take out. Search their bodies
for some keys, including one labeled "Jearl's House Key". Jearl, eh?
Go down to Bruma and find Jearl's house, it's in the southwest corner of town,
behind the Chapel of Talos. Enter and find the trapdoor down into the
basement, one of the keys you looted will open it. In the basement you will
find a note outlining the Mythic Dawn's plan to open a Great Gate at Bruma in
order to get to Martin.
Return to Jauffre with the information, and then talk to Martin about his
progress with the book.
*PROGRESS NOTE*
At this point in the game, you get two divergent, parallel paths. One involves
collecting items for Martin to use in opening a portal to Paradise. The other
involves getting Bruma ready for the opening of the Great Gate. The quests for
Martin are Blood of the Daedra, Blood of the Divines and Miscarcand. The
quests from Jauffre are Bruma Gate and Allies for Bruma (which includes a
couple of sub-quests). You can do these in whatever order you wish.
Eventually, the main story will merge in the quest Defense of Bruma.
[MS09]
The first item on Martin's shopping list is an artifact of a daedra lord.
These are, actually, fairly easy to come by. There are fifteen, total, and
obtaining each one involves it's own set of tasks. These are detailed in the
Side Quests section under Daedric Quests.
Read through about the Daedric Quests and decide which artifact you are
willing to give up, then go complete that task. The game suggests Azura's
shrine, but many players like to keep her re-useable soul gem, Azura's Star.
Once you have a daedric artifact, return to Martin. He now wants the blood of
a god.
Oh goody.
[MS10]
Martin refers you to Jauffre, who knows the location of Tiber Septim's armor.
(The first emporer, Tiber eventually became the god Talos.) Speak to Jauffre.
First, Jauffre wants you to go help close an Oblivion gate that's opened
outside Bruma. This is the Bruma Gate quest. You can choose to do it now, or
wait until later. Ask Jauffre about the armor of Tiber Septim.
Jauffre directs you to Sancre Tor, which used to be a holy site for the
Blades. He'll give you a key and directions, then it's up to you. Sancre Tor
is west-southwest of Cloud Ruler Temple, almost due north of Chorrol. You'll
need to prep for ghosts and wraiths in this dungeon. That means a magic or
silver weapon or lots of spells. Suit up and hike on over.
As you enter Sancre Tor, you'll find an enchanted weapon--if you don't already
have one. Follow the hall to the first large room, and watch out for the dart
traps surrounding the loot chests. Continue northwest and then northeast until
you come to a large room. Be careful entering the room, this if the first of
four boss fights you'll have in this dungeon.
You may recall from Jauffre's conversation that the four greatest Blades of
Tiber Septim's era lost their lives in Sancre Tor. Well, their skeletons are
still prowling the corridors, and you have to kill them to release their
spirits. They are each using enchanted Ancient Blades equipment.
Oh. Goody.
Pepper the skeletons from range first to soften them up. They move fast, so
you won't get many shots in. Try to keep the fights in the large rooms where
you find them, rather than retreating up hallways. You don't want to get into
confined places with these guys.
First up is Rielus. After he's defeated, his ghost appears and gives you the
whole story. You'll need to release his "brothers" as well, so they can break
the final evil enchantment on Sancre Tor. Loot his skeletal corpse for the
Amulet of the Ansei.
Head southeast out of this room and follow the corridor to a door that leads
to the Entry Hall. There will be a couple of ghosts here. Down in the pit is a
huge door that leads to the Tomb of the Reman Emporers. That's the ultimate
goal, but it is inaccessible until you kill (re-kill?) the four undead Blades.
Go down into the pit, near the door to the Tomb. Jump into the water to your
right and find the door that's underneath the upper level of this room. This
leads to the Catacombs. You'll make your way through several tunnels and two
larger rooms before reaching the room with Alain, an undead Blade.
Alain drops Northwind, a one-handed katana with frost damage. Behind Alain, to
the northeast, is a door leading to the Hall of Judgement. In the hall, go
through the first room, exiting to the northwest to find your way to Casnar,
your next target. He is using Mishaxhi's Cleaver, a two-handed sword with
Disintegrate Armor enchantment. (Hopefully, you rememberd to bring repair
hammers with you.)
From Casnar's room, find the tunnel leading northeast (the exit is along the
east wall of the room) and follow this back to the Entry Hall. In the Entry
Hall, take the east exit to get to the Prison. When you enter the first large
room, you'll fight the skeleton of Warden Kastav. He's not as tough as the
Blades, but he's no patsy. There will probably be a ghost or two joining in
the fight.
Loot his corpse for his key, which opens the door at the top of the ramp. At
the second four-way intersection, take a right and then take your third left.
The next left leads to Valdemar's room. Defeat him and take his enchanted
shield. That should be all four undead Blades. Return to the Entry Hall and
head for the Tomb.
The spirits of the four Blades should be here, and they'll take up positions
to bring down the magical barriers protecting the armor of Tiber Septim. Once
the barriers are down, pick up the armor and head back to Cloud Ruler Temple.
(Yes, that really is it. There's no more fightin' unless you left some ghosts
behind you.)
[MS11]
Upon your return, Martin reveals the third item necessary for a portal to
Paradise: a great welkynd stone. If you've been exploring any Ayleid ruins
prior to this point, you may have pockets full of the normal welkynd stones
(they fully restore your Magicka when used). Martin directs you to the ancient
Ayleid capital of Miscarcand.
This ruin is between Skingrad and Kvatch, not far north of the main road. It
is filled with mostly skeletons, zombies and goblins. The goblins are engaged
in running fights with the undead. You'll frequently be able to stand by and
watch them kill each other before you polish off the survivors.
From the entrance, take a left and head down the long hall to a four-way
intersection. The gate in front of you cannot be opened from this side. To
your right, stairs go down to the large room you just passed, which is mainly
a looting opportunity. To the left is a hall that leads to a raised corridor
over a large room.
Snipe the goblins and undead from your raised position. Eventually, you will
have to jump down. After looting the room, take the exit in the northwest
corner and go up the stairs. Find the button on the first landing and push it.
This opens a gate leading south from the raised corridor. Go up more stairs
and step on the pressure plate at the top to open the gate at the four-way
intersection.
Head south and enter the second level, Sel Vanua. In the first room is a varla
stone under a cover. The button to lift the cover is on the east wall. (Varla
stones fully recharge any enchanted weapon you have equipped.) Take the south
exit from this room to reach another large room with a raised corridor
crossing it. Again, you can snipe from the raised position.
Eventually, you'll have to jump down. The gate leading out of this area is to
the north. The button that opens that gate is in a side passage on the south
side of the room. Once the gate is open, enter the third level, Morimath.
Make your way through a series of halls to a large room with a platform in the
middle. In the center of the platform is the great welkynd stone, ripe for the
picking. Before you pick it, get ready for battle. If you have fire spells or
weapons, now is the time to get them ready. Wait for one hour to fully restore
your health and magicka.
Ready? Pick up the stone. Some stairs rise from the lower floor up to the
platform. (All the easier for the zombies to get you.) Behind you, a door
opens letting out a lich, the King of Miscarcand. Jump down to the lower floor
and deal with the zombies as quickly as you can. Then you can concentrate on
the lich. It's resistant to frost and magic, and weak to fire. It's primarily
a spellcaster, so try to close with it and smash it good.
After the lich is dead, loot its remains for a key. Go back up the platform
and go north into the alcove from which the lich came. Step on the pressure
plate, kill the zombies and exit to the west. The key you got from the lich
will open the gate and you've got a shortcut straight back to the top level of
the ruin. Another pressure plate opens the secret door leading to the main
exit from Miscarcand.
Return to Martin with your booty. He's still working the final item needed for
the portal. Now it's time to deal with the Oblivion gate in front of Bruma.
[MS12]
Assuming you've already talked to Jauffre about the Bruma gate, head down to
the city and report to Captain Burd. He wants you to show the city guard how
to close a gate. Agree and you'll take Burd and two of his men with you into
Oblivion.
The Bruma Oblivion world is semi-circular and filled with daedra. (You're
supposed to be here with allies, so there are more than the usual number of
demons.) You'll work your way around a semi-circular island to the north side,
then head south to the Sigil Keep, this one called The Fury Spike.
There are no side towers or anything here. This is a straight run up the tower
to the Sigillum Sanguis. The Rending Halls is a two-level affair. When you
reach the top of the first ramp, clear the room, use the Blood Fountain, then
exit to the east. Climb the curving ramp. When the hall makes a sharp left,
look for a lever on the wall to spring the blade trap ahead.
Climb the final ramps and return to the Fury Spike core. The Corridors of Dark
Salvation are next, and it's a simple loop-back climb up a couple of ramps.
Then it's on to the Sanguis and the sigil stone. Activate it and get thrown
(along with Burd and whoever else survived) back to Bruma. Burd now thinks he
and his soldiers can handle any new gates that pop up around Bruma. Return to
Jauffre at Cloud Ruler Temple.
[MS13]
*NOTE* These quests are completely optional. However, if you want a chance of
making it to the end of the main story, and you're not 50th level, then you
probably want to enlist some help.
Jauffre wants you to travel to the other cities in Cyrodiil and ask for aid
for Bruma. (He suggests seeing the Elder Council in Imperial City, but you can
skip them. They're not going to help.) You must travel to each of the other
seven cities--or fewer if you feel you don't need as much help--close an
Oblivion gate (except for Kvatch, which has a different requirement) and then
ask the ruler of the city for Aid for Bruma.
Cheydinhal and Bravil are your best stops. Each sends a high-level Captain;
Cheydinhal also sends a soldier. Anvil and Chorrol each send two soldiers.
Kvatch, Leyawiin and Skingrad send only one soldier each. At a minimum, you
should get aid from Cheydinhal, Bravil, Anvil and Chorrol. If you want to make
the next quest (Defense of Bruma) ridiculously easy, get aid from all seven
cities.
In each city, you can go speak to the count or countess first, which will mark
the Oblivion gate for you. Or you can just go close the gate and speak to the
ruler after. Speaking to the ruler before offers no special advantage other
than the map marker. Most of these rulers hold court from 8am until 4 or 6pm.
You can find the castle for each city on your world map and Fast Travel there
though you've never set foot in their doors.
You should also note some of these worlds use one of the seven random Oblivion
worlds you can enter through the random gates that pop up here and there in
the wilderness. For example, Bravil uses the #1 random world, Chorrol uses #2.
You'll always get the same world when you go through those city gates, but you
won't always get the same Sigil Keep since the random worlds link to random
Keep interiors.
| The Wayward Knight (Cheydinhal) [MS13-A]
+------------------------------------------
The gate near Cheydinhal is west of the city. If you speak to the count of
Cheydinhal first, or speak to one of the soldiers guarding the gate, you'll
get a new quest: The Wayward Knight. It seems the count's son fancies himself
a great knight, and has a group of friends who play at being knights with him.
These impetuous youths charged into Oblivion when the gate opened, and the
count wants you to bring his son out of there.
Make sure you have a spell to restore health on a target (along with your
normal Oblivion kit) before entering the gate. You'll come out at the top of a
large mountain. You'll be required to jump your way down here and there, and
it will be impossible to get back up. You're in this one for the long haul.
Once you've reached the bottom of the mountain, you'll find Farwil, the
count's son, and one other knight on the east side of the mountain, near the
bridge that crosses to the Sigil Keep. Talk to Farwil and they'll agree to
follow you and help you close the gate.
Advance across the bridge and into the tower. This is just like any other
Sigil Keep, but you have to concern yourself with keeping Farwil (at least)
alive. If he does die, you can take his signet ring from the body as proof of
his heroism.
After the gate is closed, if Farwil survived, he makes you an honorary Knight
of the Thorn and gives you an amulet with a Speechcraft enhancement. His
father then will offer you the choice of a magic sword or staff. If Farwil
didn't make it, the count will still give you some gold for your effort.
Either way, he'll offer up the services of his captain of the guard and a
soldier for the defense of Bruma.
| Bravil [MS13-B]
+-----------------
The Bravil gate is located northwest of the city. Inside you arrive facing a
bridge leading to the Sigil Keep, but a gate blocks your way. To open the
gate, you must throw a switch at the top of one of the two small towers
southeast (Spindle Shrine) and southwest (Blood Well) of the Sigil Keep. There
are three ways to get to one of those towers.
1) Go around the long way. Begin by going west, then north, then east across
a long bridge with a sunken towern in the middle, then south to the Spindle
Shrine. Fight your way up the tower (it's like a mini-keep) and throw the
switch at the top to open the gate across the main bridge.
2) If you have some decent Acrobatics skill, you can turn southwest from your
entry point and pick your way across a series of small islands that curve
to the east and then north, leading you to the Spindle Shrine. Throw the
switch at the top to open the gate across the main bridge.
3) Start by going west from the gate until you come to the bridge going north.
Look around for a cave entrance, then work your way through the caves to
the basement of the Blood Well (southwest) tower. Work your way to the top
to find the switch that opens the main gate.
Once the Sigil Keep is accessible, you're all set. Note this Keep is randomly
determined when you open the door. Some of the random Keeps have one side
area, some two and some three. There's no telling what you're going to get.
When you've got the sigil stone and have closed the Oblivion gate, see Count
Terentius for your high-level soldier.
| Anvil [MS13-C]
+----------------
You'll find the Anvil gate northwest of the city. This Oblivion world is easy,
from a pathing perspective. The Sigil Keep is on top of a mountain, you come
in at the bottom. Just follow the path as it goes through several switchbacks
up the face of the mountain and you're there. After the Oblivion gate is
closed, visit Countess Umbranox for your promise of aid, which is two standard
soldiers.
| Chorrol [MS13-D]
+------------------
This Oblivion gate is south of the city, in the woods just beyond the stables.
You enter Oblivion on the north side of the area, facing the Sigil Keep
surrounded by six towers. You enter the Sigil Keep through a connecting bridge
from the east (Earthquake) or west (Hurricane) tower. To get to one of those
two keeps, you have to open the gates that block your way.
Pick any one of the four "corner" towers: Tsunami, Eruption, Tornado or
Landslide. Ride the "corpse masher" elevator to the middle of the tower, then
climb the ramp to the top and throw the switch. This opens the gate next to
that tower. (You can, from the top of any of these towers, cross over the the
Sigil Keep; however, you can't go anywhere inside the Keep except to one of
the other four corner towers.)
Go back down, exit the tower and head through the now open gate. Enter one of
the two side towers and ride the elevator to the middle of the tower. There's
a door right at the top of the elevator to a bridge over to the Sigil Keep.
Inside the Keep you'll find the doors to the Rending Halls and you're on your
way.
Countess Valga spends a lot of time in the chapel, in addition to standard
court hours, so you should be able to find her most any time of the day.
She'll send two soldiers to the aid of Bruma.
| The Battle for Castle Kvatch [MS13-E]
+---------------------------------------
You may have already done this after Breaking the Siege of Kvatch. If so,
you'll find Savlian Matius where you left him, in the castle of Kvatch. Speak
to him about Aid for Bruma and he promises to send what he can (which is one
soldier).
If you haven't done this quest yet, Matius and his guards will still be in the
Temple of Akatosh in Kvatch. Speak to Matius and agree to help him retake the
castle. He takes off with some men through the north door of the church.
Follow him outside and help cut through the daedra between the church and the
castle.
When you reach the castle gates, you find them locked. Matius instructs you to
go through the North Guard House, under the wall, to the inside of the gates
and unlock them. Berich Inian, a guard still in the church, has the key.
Return to the church and talk to Inian. He tells you he'll take you through
the passage. You'll also find some Imperial legionaires. Speak to them and
they agree to help out. Follow Inian down into the chapel's crypt. Take it
easy through here, there are a lot of daedra. With Inian and the legionaires,
the demons shouldn't be much trouble. You'll exit the crypt and wind your way
through more daedra until you reach the North Guard House. If Inian dies along
the way, make sure you frisk him for the key.
Once you reach the Guard House, all you have to do is drop down into the
tunnel, run to the far end (no enemies) and climb up to find yourself on the
inside of the castle gate. Turn the wheel to open the gate and let Matius and
his men through. There's a pitched battle in the courtyard and then more
fighting in the main hall of the castle.
Matius now instructs you to go find the count. You'll be aided by any
surviving legionaires, so you probably won't have to fight through the castle
alone. When you reach the count's quarters, you'll find his body. Get his
signet ring off the body and return it to Matius.
Matius, at this point, suddenly decides to retire and gives you his armor. He
then spends the remainder of the game standing in the castle in his civvies.
You can also ask him for Aid for Bruma and get one Kvatch soldier for your
trouble.
| Leyawiin [MS13-F]
+-------------------
The Oblivion gate is east-northeast of Leyawiin. From the entry point, go west
and find a cave door. The caves, like many Oblivion things, are random. Just
keep plugging along and you'll eventually reach the main island.
When you finally make it out, there are Spindle Shrines to the east and west.
Pick either one and climb to the top. Here you can get to a bridge that leads
to one of the Blood Well towers. Throw the switch at the top of the Blood Well
tower to open gates leading to the Sigil Keep. Go down to the bottom of the
Blood Well, exit onto the bridge and fight your way to the Keep.
Once the gate is closed, you can find Count Caro in Castle Leyawiin during
normal court hours.
| Skingrad [MS13-G]
+-------------------
The Skingrad gate is just east of Castle Skingrad, at the top of a small hill.
Inside, you find ourself facing three towers. The two towers to your left and
right are the Anguish Keep and the Sorrow Keep. Each is a full keep, with two
side areas and a shrine at the top.
Fight your way to the top of either keep and throw the switch. This will
extend a bridge across to the top of the other side keep. Cross the bridge and
throw a switch in the second tower. The bridge between the towers retracts,
but bridges extend from each side keep to the main Sigil Keep. You'll have to
fight your way down one level in the second keep in order to take the bridge
over to the Sigil Keep.
Entering the Sigil Keep, you're already about halfway up the tower and only
have to fight your way through one side area in order to reach the Sigillum
Sanguis. You know what to do by now.
The peculiarity in Skingrad occurs after you've closed the gate and want to
get aid from Count Hassildor. You can only talk to the count by going through
an intermediary. If you are in the middle of the Mage's Guild quest, "Ulterior
Motives", then Hassildor will refuse to speak to you until you fully complete
that quest (which means reporting in to Raminus Polus). Otherwise, if you have
not done "Ulterior Motives", then you must speak to the steward, Mercator
Hosidus about Aid for Bruma. If you have done "Ulterior Motives", you must
speak to Hal-Liurz.
[MS14]
You can open this quest any time after finishing the three "relic hunts" for
Martin and the Bruma Gate quest. Talk to Martin and he'll reveal the final
item he needs for a portal to Paradise: a great sigil stone. You can only get
these by entering a great gate. So Martin proposes to let the enemy open a
great gate next to Bruma and then send you in to get the great sigil stone
before the enemy gets its siege machine out the gate and destroys Bruma.
It's goofy plans like this that make him the Emporer, see?
You've no choice but to agree. Martin asks that you personally see Countess
Carvain in Bruma and fill her in on the plan. So head off the Bruma and the
Countess, who agrees with the plan. (Must be the royal blood that causes this
idiocy.) She'll head off the the chapel of Talos.
Follow her down to the chapel and witness the meeting between Martin and
Carvain. After they've chatted, talk to Carvain again. At this point you have,
essentially, two choices: "Let's go" or "I'm not ready yet". (If you haven't
completed all the Allies for Bruma quests, you will also have a "Recruit more
soldiers" response, which is the same thing as "I'm not ready".)
Save your game! Martin and Carvain will stand in the chapel until the cows
come home waiting for you to get ready. So...get ready. The mission ahead is a
timed run through an Oblivion world. You'll not be able to Wait at any point,
so you'll need a full set of healing potions, Magicka-restoring potions, etc.
Make sure your enchanted weapons are recharged and all your armor and weapons
are fully repaired. Feel like you need more support? Go finish more Allies for
Bruma quests.
When you're ready, give Carvain the go ahead and follow Martin and company out
the East Gate of Bruma. Your little army heads towards an Oblivion gate that
has just opened, Martin gives a speech, then the battle is on. Your primary
job is to keep Martin alive until the great gate opens. If you recruited all
the available soldiers in Allies for Bruma, this is really easy. There are
more than enough guards to control the daedra popping through the lesser
gates.
After a few minutes, you'll get the message the great gate has opened. The
timer has started! Get moving through the gate...
[MS15]
This Oblivion world is different in two ways: There's a giant siege engine
moving toward the gate and you have about 15 minutes to get to the top of the
Sigil Keep and get the great sigil stone. That's 15 minutes real time, but
don't dawdle. Try not to spend too much time fighting. Use a potion, spell or
equipment to Fortify your Speed and try just racing past most enemies. Keep a
healing spell equipped and boost your health as you run.
There are two towers in front of you, head to the west (left) one. Climb to
the top and exit onto a north-bound bridge that leads to another tower. Go
down that tower and exit onto a large bridge. There's a jump here across
broken pieces of the bridge, but if you miss the jump, you fall down in front
of a cave entrance that might actually be an easier path.
If you decided to take the eastern route north, the jump across the broken
bridge is much more difficult and drops you into lava. Plus, there's no
convenient cave to take you under the fire-spitting guard towers. Your choice.
Regardless, your goal is one of the two towers flanking the Sigil Keep. If you
use the cave at the base of the western bridge, it takes you directing into
the western guard tower. At the tops of these two towers are switches that
open the gates leading to the Sigil Keep.
This Keep has only one side area, the Vaults of End Times. However, you do
need a Sigil Key from one of two Sigil Keepers. There's a Keeper on the ground
floor, and another near the door to the Sigillum Sanguis. Kill either one,
enter the Sanguis and run for the great sigil stone. Provided you got there in
time, everything, including the large siege engine, blows up and Bruma is
saved!
Your reward is a standard sigil stone lying in front of the burned-out hulk of
the siege engine (which somehow manages to blow up right outside Bruma) and
the opportunity to go after Mankar Camoran.
Aren't you lucky?
[MS16]
After the battle for Bruma, return to Cloud Ruler Temple. Tend to your
equipment and talk to Martin. He's ready to open a portal to Camoran's
Paradise. The question is, are you ready? Once you enter Paradise, you can't
get out until Camoran is dead. He's a high-level mage, so kit yourself out
appropriately. Some Dispel scrolls or potions would be useful. Plenty of
damage resistance, magic resistance, spell absorption...you know the drill.
Once you're ready to live off what you can carry, tell Martin to open the
portal. Enter the portal to find yourself in Paradise.
Literally.
Camoran's little slice of reality is a pleasant garden environment with blue
skys and fluffy white clouds. Oh, and the occasional daedra ready to tear your
head off...Nothing's perfect. Head off down the white brick path, listening to
Camoran lecture you. Along the way, in addition to the occasional daedra,
you'll find Ascended Immortals. These dead Mythic Dawn cultists are waiting in
Paradise for Dagon's victory over Tamriel.
You can talk to these cultists and learn some of the history of this place.
You also learn the only way to Camoran is through the Forbidden Grotto. And
you can only get in there if you have the Bands of the Chosen.
As you follow the path, you'll eventually encounter a dremora named Kathutet.
He wants to talk (so watch your trigger finger). He'll give you Bands of the
Chosen if you serve him or beat him in a fight. Choose to serve him and he'll
send you on an errand to free one of his subordinates, Anaxes, who has been
imprisoned by the Ascended Immortals.
Beating Anaxes is far the easier and quicker course of action. But, if you
decide to serve him, Anaxes' lair is to the northwest. Enter and find the
boulder wedged in place by logs. Stand to the side and Activate the logs to
push them out of the way. Return to where you met Kathutet.
Cross the bridge going east and enter the Flooded Grotto. At the end of the
grotto, if you freed Anaxes, you'll meet Kathutet again and he gives you the
Bands of the Chosen. If you killed Kathutet, you already have the Bands. Equip
them and open the door to the Forbidden Grotto.
The Forbidden Grotto turns out to be a torture chamber. As you leave the first
large room, you'll be intercepted by an Ascended Immortal named Eldamil. He
wants to help, and, you want his help. Really, you do. Agree to Eldamil's
plan. He directs you into one of the cages. While in the cage, Eldamil's boss,
Orthe, comes to check on things.
Eldamil's ruse works, and he lets you out on the east side of the chasm. You
can now head south, through another toruture chamber and through the door into
the next section of the Grotto.
If you chose to turn down Eldamil, then you have to head north from Eldamil's
room and fight Orthe and two of his buddies. This is not good for your health.
But, if you insist on trying, you'll have to kill them all, get Orthe's key
from a loot sack in the corner of their room. This key opens the portcullis
leading east and eventually to the exit.
In the second part of the Grotto you'll meet Eldamil again. (Even if you
turned him down or even killed him.) He removes your Bands of the Chosen and
offers again to help you out. You really should accept his offer. Work your
way through the Grotto until you encounter a xivilai named Medrike. He has the
key to the exit. Take it from him.
Outside, follow the path until you run into Mankar's children, Raven and Ruma.
They lead you inside Mankar's palace, where Mankar begins making a speech.
Don't bother listening. Walk up to him and smack him. Mankar has a lot of
spell absorption and damage reflection, so attacking him from range,
especially with spells, is not a good option.
Ignore Raven and Ruma, if you kill them, they just respawn. Mankar is your
only concern. You want to keep him off balance, preferably with power attacks
that stagger or stun him. You might also be able to paralyze him with poison
put on your weapon. If you brought Eldamil along, he can help distract the two
kids and let you focus on Mankar. If you're an Orc or Redguard, use your
greater power and just bash Mankar as hard as you can.
As soon as Mankar is dead, Paradise collapses and you find yourself back in
Cloud Ruler Temple, the Amulet of Kings in hand. It's time to close the
Oblivion gates once and for all.
[MS17]
After your return from Paradise, Martin says it's time to go to Imperial City
and the Temple of the One. Fast Travel down to the Palace district of Imperial
City and enter the Elder Council Chambers. Once Martin's joined you, he and
Ocato begin discussing Martin's claim to the throne lighting the Dragonfires.
Unfortunately, you're interrupted by a couple of dremora. Oblivion gates have
sprung up in Imperial City and daedra are rampaging in the streets. Your final
mission is at hand: protect Martin. Follow the group outside and help deal
with the daedra, make sure Martin stays healthy.
Once this initial wave of daedra are dead, you're joined by a small group of
Imperial Legion soldiers. This is your army. Martin says he must get to the
Temple of the One, so join the soldiers as they run toward the Temple
District.
When you reach the Temple district, you find it overrun by daedra. Don't spend
too much time on them, as you kill them, more jump out of the two gates in
this district. Just run to your right around the temple, making sure Martin is
keeping up with you.
You'll soon run into Mehrunes Dagon himself. You can't kill this monster, but
you can hurt him. Your only task is to get Martin inside the Temple and the
door is just past Dagon. Run up and power attack one of Dagon's legs. He'll
lift the foot as he staggers back, so take that time to run to the door and
Activate it. Martin will follow you inside.
At this point, there's nothing you can do but watch. Enjoy the show!
[MS18]
This isn't really a quest, more of an epilogue. After all the shouting's done,
Chancellor Ocato has a chat with you. He names you Champion of Cyrodiil and
says he's ordered up a suit of Imperial Dragon Armor--normally only worn by
the emporer--for you. Two weeks later, you'll be able to go to the Imperial
Legion armory in the Imperial City Prison district and pick up a suit of
either Light or Heavy Imperial Dragon Armor. (The type of armor is determined
by which of your two armor skills is higher rank.) The armor not only looks
nice, it's got some decent enchantments on it as well.
That's it! You've finished the main story of Oblivion. But the game is far
from over...
[MG00]
~~The Elder Scrolls IV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MAGE'S GUILD
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~OBLIVION~~
The Mage's Guild quests should be considered a necessity for any character, at
least to the point where you get access to Arcane University (after completing
the recommendations). Once you are "inside", you can enchant items and make
your own spells, both highly useful activities.
Note also that completing the Mage's Guild quests does not require you to be a
mage, nor even particularly proficient with magic. Most of the quests are
"solved" by combat, which any character can be adept at.
Joining the Mage's Guild is simple: make sure you have no outstanding bounty,
then speak to the leader in one of the seven local guild halls. They are:
* Anvil: Carahil
* Bravil: Kud-Ei
* Bruma: Jeanne Frasoric
* Cheydinhal: Falcar
* Chorrol: Teekeeus
* Leyawiin: Dagail
* Skingrad: Adrienne Berene
Once you've joined, you are considered an Associate and you receive a key that
opens the various locked doors in the guild halls and you can pick up
equipment freely in the guild storerooms. Before you can advance in rank and
access the Arcane University in Imperial City, you must get a recommendation
from each local guild leader.
Ask each guild leader about a recommendation. They'll say they can't possibly
give you a recommendation unless you do something for them first.
Uh huh. You've been down this road before.
Agree to undertake the tasks they ask of you and you'll get their
recommendations.
[MG01]
This quest, while it initially sounds quite exciting, is quite yawn-worthy.
Talk to Carahil at the Anvil Guild. She wants you to bait a trap for a rogue
mage that's been murdering merchants traveling the Gold Coast. You are sent to
the Brina Cross Inn, just north of Anvil. Be sure to follow through all
Carahil's conversation options to get some Frost Shell scrolls.
Go to the Inn and speak to Arielle Jurard. She tells you to take a room. Do
so, and Jurard will come up to your room soon after you enter and explain the
plan. You are to rest, then travel east along the road. You'll be followed by
Jurard and another battlemage. When the rogue mage hits you, they'll move in
and take him out.
You only need to rest in the bed 1 hour (you can rest overnight if you wish),
then head out to the road and walk east. You'll soon be waylaid by Caminalda,
who may have spoken to you at the Inn. She's the rogue and she is easily
dispatched. In fact, you don't even really need to do anything except step
back and let the other two battlemages take over.
After, loot Caminalda's body for the key to her room at the Inn, which
contains a bit of loot. Then return to Carahil for her recommendation.
Don't you love it when a plan comes together?
[MG02]
No combat required for this task, just lots of running around and a fair bit
of gold from your pocket (or a bit of theft). Kud-Ei, head of the Bravil
Guild, wants you to speak to Varon Vamori about a staff he stole from one of
Kud-Ei's "girls". To help matters, Kud-Ei gives you a Beguile scroll (Charm,
30 points for 30 seconds). Head to Vamori's house, which will be marked for
you on your local map.
Talk to Vamori. You need to get his Disposition to 65 to find out the fate of
the staff. You can do this with the Persuasion mini-game and/or bribes or use
the Beguile scroll. Once you've persuaded him, Vamori reveals he stole the
staff in a fit of anger and sold it to one Soris Arenim, who lives in Imperial
City.
Lovely. Go back to Kud-Ei and get another supply of Beguile scrolls. Travel to
the Talos Plaza District and find Arenim's house (marked on your map). You
must get Arenim's Disposition up to 70 to get any information about the staff.
He offers to sell it to you for 200 Septims. You can pay the price and finish
this business; or, if you're opposed to being out-of-pocket on this mission...
Speak to Arenim's wife, Erissare. Get her Dispostion to 65 (again, with
Persuasion or spell), and she'll tell you where Arenim keeps the staff and
where he keeps the key to the chest containing the staff. (If you don't want
to use up a scroll, the key is upstairs in Soris' desk; the chest with the
staff is in the cellar.)
Return the staff to Kud-Ei, who is suitably grateful. She teaches you a mild
Charm spell (Captivate) and promises her recommendation to the Guild.
[MG03]
This may just be the easiest and shortest quest in the entire game. Talk to
Jeanne Frasoric, guild leader, to learn one of her mages, J'skar, has gone
missing. Now, if you have a Detect Life spell, cast it and walk around
(including down in the basement living quarters) and you should find an
invisible humanoid. Cast a Dispel to reveal J'skar and return to Jeanne for
your recommendation.
If you don't have Detect Life, you may still be able to find J'skar by
wandering around and pointing your crosshair target at random places. If it
suddenly changes to a crown (plot NPC) icon over thin air, you've found your
Dispel target.
Finally, if you don't have a Dispel handy, talk to guild member Volanaro. He
reveals the whole disappearance is a prank. Raise his Disposition to 70 and
he'll make a deal: you steal Jeanne's copy of Manual of Spellcraft and he'll
"find" J'skar. Getting the book is easy, especially since Volanaro will teach
you an Unlock spell. Jeanne's room is the only room on the upper floor of the
guild. Break in, unlock her desk (with spell or lockpick) and grab her book.
Return to Volanaro, and he'll agree to meet you at 10pm in the living
quarters. Wait ahead to the appropriate time, meet Volanaro in the basement
and he'll Dispel J'skar's invisibility.
[MG04]
Falcar, leader of the Cheydinhal guild, has dropped a ring down the well
behind the guild. He makes some mention of sending someone else after it and
not getting it back. He now wants you to go get the ring. He sends you to
Deetsan for a key to the well.
Deetsan won't give you the key until she's had a talk with you, and she won't
talk while Falcar is around. Wait ahead until Falcar goes back to his
quarters, then talk to Deetsan. She is concerned over Falcar's "prank tasks"
given to new Associates, and warns you to be careful. Then she hands over the
key and teaches you a combination water-breathing and feather (reduced
encumbrance) spell.
Deetsan's warning is well-taken. The ring is a Ring of Burden and increases
your encumbrance by 200 points. Deetsan's spell only reduces encumbrance by 5
points. Bit of a discrepancy there.
You don't actually have to retrieve the ring. Drop down into the well, cast
your water-breathing spell and find the body of a previous Associate sent
after the ring. Take the ring from his body, which will over-encumber you,
then drop it to the bottom of the well.
Return to the guild. Deetsan rashly confronted Falcar over the disappearance
of the previous Associate and he had a fit and has taken off for parts
unknown. So how do you get your recommendation? Deetsan tells you to search
Falcar's quarters for the letter of recommendation. You won't find a letter,
but you will find two black soul gems. Take them to Deetsan, who is dismayed
with your find, and promises to send your recommendation herself.
[MG05]
The Chorrol recommendation only comes with your completion of the Fingers of
the Mountain quest. There's a part 2 of that quest, depending on how you
handle the first part.
| Fingers of the Mountain [MG05-A]
+----------------------------------
Teekeeus, head of the Chorrol guild, has bad relations with former colleague
Earana. She is loitering about town, and Teekeeus wants you to find out why so
she can be sent on her way. Follow your objective marker to Earana. She isn't
interested in Teekeeus, she wants a book, Fingers of the Mountain, that can be
found at a ruin called Cloud Top. She promises a vague reward if you bring her
the book.
Relay this to Teekeeus and he lets you know he would like the book as well.
Retrieve it for him and the recommendation is yours. Journey (by foot or
horse) to Cloud Top, which has been marked for you and is north-northwest of
Chorrol. There are no specific enemies to fight, though you will encounter the
normal range of wild animals on your path. The book is conveniently located on
a charred corpse lying at the base of a broken column.
You now have two choices:
1) Take the book to Teekeeus. He accepts, with thanks, and the recommendation
is yours.
2) Take the book to Earana. She says she must study it for a day. Return to
her the following day and she'll give you instructions on how to obtain
a powerful spell. See "Learning the Spell" below for the full instructions.
| Fingers of the Mountain, Part II [MG05-B]
+-------------------------------------------
You can, actually, do both--get the recommendation from Teekeeus and the spell
from Earana. After finishing part 1 of this quest, go to the other participant
and reveal what you've done. This opens Part II: you are asked to steal the
book back. Teekeeus keeps the book in a locked chest in his quarters. Earana
keeps the book in her room at the Grey Mare Inn.
Once you've stolen the book, return it to the other party. You'll get the
recommendation (from Teekeeus) or the spell instructions (from Earana) and
still have the other "reward" from the previous "owner" of the book.
It's all good.
| Learning the Spell
+--------------------
The true reward for this quest is Finger of the Mountain, a very powerful
spell. Two things to note about this spell:
1) Its power is keyed to your level. If you learn the spell at level 2, you
get a low-level spell. Learn the spell at a higher level, and the power
is much higher. (See list below.) PC users can learn the low-level spell
and have it automatically leveled up using a mod.
2) At higher levels, the spell is only useful to dedicated mages, since it
costs a lot of magicka. If you don't rely much on spells, don't bother
learning this one.
To learn Finger of the Mountain, you must visit Cloud Top and cast a Shock
spell on the central, broken column and have a welkynd stone in your
inventory. Welkynd stones are all over the place in Ayleid ruins. If you don't
have one, you can get some from a small ruin just northeast of the Chorrol
north gate.
It's called Hrotanda Vale, and it is a two-level, bandit-infested ruin. The
first large room you come to has two floor traps in the center. If you draw
the bandits over them, you may finish off two or three with the traps. Careful
jumping around the corners will get you past the traps into a room full of
welkynd stones. (You can finish off the rest of the ruin, or not. All you
really need is one stone.)
Make sure you have a spell or scroll that does shock damage (any magnitude)
and a welkynd stone. Return to Cloud Top, restore yourself to full health and
cast your Shock spell on the central column. You'll get hit by lightning in
return and learn Finger of the Mountain. The shock damage done to you and the
power of the spell is keyed to your level:
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | | Finger of the Mountain (Destruction magic) |
| Min PC level | Dmg to PC | Shock Dmg | Area | Magicka* | Skill level |
|--------------+-----------+-----------+------+-----------+-------------|
| 1 | 15 | 6 | 5 | 11 | Novice |
|--------------+-----------+-----------+------+-----------+-------------|
| 5 | 40 | 20 | 5 | 54 | Journeyman |
|--------------+-----------+-----------+------+-----------+-------------|
| 10 | 60 | 40 | 5 | 131 | Expert |
|--------------+-----------+-----------+------+-----------+-------------|
| 15 | 120 | 90 | 5 | 371 | Master |
|--------------+-----------+-----------+------+-----------+-------------|
| 20 | 210 | 140 | 5 | 653 | Master |
|--------------+-----------+-----------+------+-----------+-------------|
| 25 | 210 | 200 | 10 | 1547 | Master |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* Actual magicka cost will be adjusted based on your skill level in
Destruction.
[MG06]
The head of the Leyawiin Mage's Guild, Dagail, is somewhat incoherent. Speak
to her, and, among her ramblings, she'll point you to Agata. Speak to Agata to
learn about the stone Dagail used to have that allows her to focus her
visions. Find Kalthar and ask him about the Seer's Stone.
He'll give you an earful and then some. Return to Agata and discuss Kalthar
with her. She'll tell to you go back to Dagail. Speak to Dagail again and
listen intently to her riddles. Or not. Your journal will now point you to
Fort Blueblood.
Refer to your map, where you'll find Fort Blueblood now showing southeast of
Leyawiin. Hoof it over there and fight your way through a bunch of marauders
in a two level dungeon. After killing the marauder warlord, make sure you loot
his body for the Fort Blueblood key. This gives you access to the crypt where
Dagail's father lies.
His coffin is protected by leveled creatures. Once they are down and you've
retrieved his amulet, you'll be confronted by Kalthar. He wants the amulet,
which, of course, you're not going to let him have. Kalthar's a conjurer, so
ignore his buddy if he summons one and concentrate on taking him out. Return
to Dagail in Leyawiin for the recommendation.
[MG07]
Adrienne Berene wants some notes from Erthor, a mage Adrienne ran out of the
guild. She has no idea where Erthor is, and wants you to track him down. Talk
to Sulinus Vassinus, who should be wandering around the guild. Vassinus says
Erthor moved into Bleak Flats Cave and hasn't been seen in a long time. (Yay!
Caves!) Vassinus has no idea where Bleak Flats Cave is.
Find Druja, another mage wandering around the guild. Druja can pinpoint Bleak
Flats Cave on your map and mentions it was Berene that recommended the cave to
Erthor. Talk to Berene again; she'll order you point-blank to go to the cave
and bring Erthor back. To aid you, you are taught a new spell, Fireball. (Yay!
Fire!)
Bleak Flats Cave now appears on your map, north-northwest of Skingrad. You
can't Fast Travel there, so walk on over. Inside are quite a number of
deranged zombies. (Yay! Zombies! In a cave! With fire!) Fight your way through
them, making sure you wipe them all out, until you find Erthor. Erthor will be
pleased with the rescue and ask that you lead him out of the cave.
Letting Erthor follow you is not required. You can simply tell him to return
to the Skingrad guild hall on his own. There's a shortcut out of Erthor's
"room" to the northwest. Pull the lever to move the rock. After returning to
the Mage's Guild, talk to Berene to get your recommendation.
[MG08]
After completing the seven recommendation quests, talk to any guild leader
about your recommendation. You'll be sent to Raminus Polus at the Arcane
University, in Imperial City. Travel there and enter the lobby of the
University during normal hours to meet Polus. You'll be promoted to Apprentice
and given a new task: create a mage's staff.
First, you have to collect the proper wood for your staff. Polus sends you to
a grove near Wellspring Cave, which is east of Imperial City. To reach the
grove, you must go through the cave. In the first area of the cave you'll find
the body of one of the grove's guardians. (You knew this wasn't going to be
simple, right?) Make sure you Activate the body twice--once to update your
journal, again to get the key to the grove from her body.
There are also some necromancers in the cave. Necromancers like to summon
things; try to ignore the summoned creatures and take out the summoner (which
also dispels the summons). Near the end of the cave is the body of the second
grove guardian. Outside, in the grove, are three necromancers. There's no way
to take them on one-by-one, you'll have to put up with all three hitting you
at once.
If you're having trouble with them, make sure you use items and potions with
damage resistance (especially against fire and shock). Remember to take out
the summoner and don't waste time on the summons. When the necromancers are
dead, get your wood from the chest in the center of the grove. You can jump
down from the grove into Lake Rumare and swim across to Arcane University.
Polus is appalled at the necromancer attack on the grove. He sends you along
to Delmar in the Chironasium, who will make a staff of your choosing. You can
pick from three schools, and then choose one of three powers from that school:
* Destruction: Fire, Frost or Shock damage
* Illusion: Charm, Paralyze or Silence
* Mysticism: Dispel, Telekineses or Soul Trap
Wait until the next day and collect your staff from the cupboard in the back
of the room. Return to Polus and ask about Advancement; you are now a
Journeyman in the Guild. Then ask about Tasks for a new mission.
[MG09]
Polus sends you on a simple step-n-fetch mission. Count Hassildor in Skingrad
borrowed a book, and the Guild wants it back. Travel to Castle Skingrad. You
can't see the count, and everyone refers you to Mercator Hosidus, castle
steward. Mercator is brusque and won't bother the count until the following
day.
Return the next day. Hosidus sets up a meeting between you and the count on
the road west of town after 2am that night. Wait until the appropriate time,
then head out the west gate and down the road, just past the first farm on the
left. Make sure you're kitted out for battle first (yeah, you're not getting
off easy).
Hosidus and a couple of necromancers are waiting for you. This can't end well.
Endeavor to make sure Hosidus and friends feel worse about the meeting than
you. During the ruckus, Count Hassildor will show up and take a personal
interest in "retiring" Hosidus--and his pals. Then he chews you out for being
a gullible fool.
Well. Yeah. But it's not like the game gives you any other choice. You find
out you were sent to spy on Hassildor, but he turned the situation around and
used you as bait to draw out Hosidus and his allies. Travel back to Arcane
University and do some chewing out of your own on Polus. He apologizes, fully
explains the count's condition (he's a vampire, if you haven't figured that
out yourself) and promotes you to Evoker. You get a leveled amulet with a
Spell Absorption enchantment and a new task.
[MG10]
Polus sends you to help Irlav Jarol, who hangs out in the Arch Mage's Council
Chamber (use the portal in the Lobby). Jarol is supervising an archaelogical
study of an Ayleid ruin and they've hit a snag. He sends you to investigate.
Vahtacen is located south-southeast of Cheydinhal. The upper level of this
ruin is unoccupied except for a couple of Mage's Guild workers: Skaleel and
Denel. Skaleel is disgruntled and doesn't want to help. She sends you down to
Denel, who explains the problem.
They've got a wall blocking their way further into the ruin and they can't
figure out how to open it. You can do this the hard way by entering the large
room and looking at the inscriptions on the walls. Then return to Denel and
ask about translating the runes. He sends you to Skaleel for a book, then
helps you translate the writing.
Or, you can just go ahead and open the wall. You need four spells (scrolls or
staffs will work): fire damage, frost damage, damage magicka and fortify
magicka. If you don't have these spells, you can find scrolls in the chest
behind Denel. Walk up to the large column in the center of the room and cast
your spells in this order: fire, frost, damage magicka (must be damage, not
drain or absorb) and fortify magicka (must be useable on a target, not on
self). The walls will open, revealing a staircase leading down.
It's up to you to go down and explore Vahtacen's depths. Speaking to Denel or
Skaleel will only confirm this for you. You'll fight your way through a lot of
ghosts (or wraiths, depending on your level) until you reach a large room with
a platform in the middle. There's no immediate way up onto the platform. Use
the stairs on the south side of the room to get up to the switch that raises
steps to the central platform.
On top of the platform is a cover that is raised with a nearby switch. Don't
push the switch until you're ready for battle. Open the cover and take the
relic underneath. When you do, three zombies are released into the room.
They're pretty stupid and won't use the stairs to come get you, so you can
stand on the edge of the platform and snipe them. Or you can jump down and try
to take them all on at once.
Once they're dead, you can take a shortcut back to the upper levels of the
ruin by using the northern-most exit from this room. Show the relic to
Skaleel, who will be delighted, then return to Jarol at Arcane University for
your reward.
[MG11]
Polus now gives you another promotion and a new task: talk to archivist
Tar-Meena about necromancy. Use the "Black Soul Gems" topic to get Tar-Meena
to talk. She tells you to read a book called "Necromancer's Moon". It's lying
on a table there in the library. Talk to Tar-Meena again, who points out a
reference to "Shade of the Revenant".
Return to Polus, who refers you to Bothiel, the resident astronomer. Bothiel
recalls Falcar (remember him) once asking about the Shade of the Revenant. He
dropped a note when he left and she kept it. The note mentions four sites: The
Dark Fissure, Fort Istirius, Fort Linchal and Wendelbek. Polus decides to send
you to Dark Fissure, which is a place he recognizes.
This cave is near Cheydinhal, and you never actually need to go inside. You
can finish this quest in two ways:
1) When you find the cave, you'll see an altar out front. Wait until nightfall
and watch as a necromancer comes out and turns normal soul gems into black
soul gems. You'll get a new journal entry and can return to Polus with what
you've seen.
2) If you arrive during the day and don't want to wait, enter Dark Fissure.
In the very first room, you'll be able to kill a necromancer and get a
recipe for black soul gems from his body. Return to Polus with this infor-
mation.
In neither instance is it necessary to clear out the caves, though you can do
so if you wish. Polus promotes you to Magician and sends you to Arch Mage
Traven.
[MG12]
You'll find Traven either in the Council chambers or in his room (use the
portal in the Council chambers). His first task for you is to bring in an
informant who has been working with the necromancers. Traven fears a team of
battlemages may mistake the informant for a real necromancer and kill him. You
are sent to Nenyond Twyll, southeast of Imperial City.
Travel down there and enter the ruins. You'll meet one of the battlemages, who
reports the necromancers wiped out the rest of the team. Despite that, he
thinks he and you are enough to take out this nest of vipers. Let him rush
down the stairs and be killed by the trap at the bottom. Better him than you,
right?
Jump around the corners of the trap and fight your way south to the entrance
to the second level of the ruins. This is basically just one big room, mostly
filled with water. There are several necromancers in this room, so advance
slowly and try to pick them off one-by-one. There's one, who, if given a
chance, will talk and reveal the fate of the informant; but, you're going to
find that out soon anyway. Along the north wall is a secret door, opened with
a switch that's in an alcove to the left.
Beyond is the informant, now a zombie (Worm Thrall, in technical terms). Kill
him and your journal updates. Also to the left of the secret room entrance is
a shortcut back to the exit from the ruins. Return to Traven to complete the
quest, then talk to Polus, who increases your rank to Warlock.
[MG13]
Having dealt with Count Hassildor in Skingrad once, you're sent back to him.
He has important information for the Guild, and has requested that you
personally come to collect. When you arrive, and have gone through Hal-Liurz
to see the Count, he lets you know there's a little task--or two--he wants you
to perform before he divulges his knowledge.
First on the list are a group of uncultured vampires who have taken over
Bloodcrust cave just outside the castle. Hassildor wants them wiped out as
they are little better than beasts. Second are the vampire hunters who have
come to town to kill these vampires. Hassildor doesn't want them poking too
much into his own nocturnal activities.
There are at least three ways to handle this little task:
1) Find the vampire hunters (they have rooms at the Two Sisters Lodge and also
eat lunch there). Tell the leader, Eridor, where the vampires are, then follow
them to watch the fun. Bring some popcorn. When it's all done, either mop up
the rest of the vampires or congratulate the surviving hunters.
2) Go wipe out the vampires yourself. Make sure you take at least one sample
of "Vampire Dust" from one of these vampires. (Dust from other vamps won't
work.) Go find the hunters at the Two Sisters Lodge and speak to their leader,
Eridor, and tell him the vampires are all dead. Show him the dust sample as
proof. The hunters will take off for other parts.
3) Kill the vampires and the vampire hunters. The latter is risky as it is
murder and the count has told you he can't protect you. Though he, personally,
doesn't care if you kill them, he can't intervene if you're caught.
Overall, the first option is by far the easiest. You may even get lucky and
the hunters will prevail and you won't have to lift a finger. Regardless,
return to Hassildor and get his information and then take that to Traven.
[MG14]
Traven is upset by the information you bring him, and says he and the council
need some time to sort things out. You can't get another quest from him until
a couple of days have passed. Either go quest somewhere else for a while or
Wait two days and try him again.
The news of the King of Worms' return has blown up the council. While they try
to sort things out, Traven sends you to Bruma. Jeanne hasn't reported in
several days and Traven is worried.
And rightly so. The Bruma Mage's Guild is on fire and filled with the dead
bodies of its members and lots of leveled undead. You'll have to kill off the
creatures on the main floor, then go down the right-hand set of stairs to the
living quarters.
This is where things get hairy. There are at least four, and possibly five or
six creatures in this confined area and they will all hit you at once--one as
soon as you come through the door. Your only chance is to immediately scuttle
into the room to your right and try to take them out as they come through the
door. If you can keep them bottled up in the doorway, only one or two can hit
you at a time.
When you leave the living quarters, you can go up the stairs to Jeanne's room,
where you'll find the necromancer in charge of this expedition. She's not
talkative, so take her out fast. When you do, J'skar appears out of nowhere.
He used his invisibility to hide and escaped destruction. He has a terrifying
eye-witness account of the attack, and then heads for Arcane University for
safety. Follow him and report in to Traven.
Go see Polus for another advancement, to Wizard, and the spell Wizard's Fury,
which is keyed to your level and provides fire, shock and frost damage in one
handy explosion.
[MG15]
You'll need to go play with your new spell for a couple of days, because
Traven and his cronies need time to digest the new information. When you
return, he gives dismaying news. The other two council members, Irlav Jarol
and Caranya, have stolen some powerful artifacts and taken off with them.
*NOTE* You can do these two quests in any order.
Jarol has stolen the Bloodworm Helm and gone to Fort Teleman. Teleman is
northeast of Leyawiin, so Fast Travel there and head out to the Fort. You'll
have to fight your way through two levels of necromancers and daedra (even if
you finished the main story, there will still be daedra in here). At the
bottom of the second level is Jarol's body.
Retrieve the Bloodworm Helm from Jarol's corpse and return it to Traven; or,
use it to help retrieve the Necromancer's Amulet.
[MG16]
Caranya has made off to Fort Ontus, which is in-between Chorrol and Kvatch in
the Colovian highlands. The mages in here are initially peaceful, so there's
no fighting as you work your way down to the second level and a meeting with
Caranya. Of course, you won't get out without a fight, so note the positions
of all these future enemies.
After Caranya reveals herself to be a traitor to the cause, kill her and take
the amulet. There are two ways back out, both of which cover about the same
distance. Either way, you're going to have to wade through several
necromancers and their summons.
[MG17]
After returning both the Bloodworm Helm and Necromancer's Amulet to Traven,
talk to Polus again for promotion to Master Wizard. You're now Polus' equal in
rank. Traven now wants you to help take the battle to the enemy.
A group of battlemages has been sent to the Ayleid ruin of Silorn to intercept
a unique black soul gem. Before leaving, buy a Paralyze or Burden spell or
scroll, if you don't have one. Travel to Silorn, southeast of Skingrad, and
meet up with the leader of the team, Thalfin. A direct assault didn't work
because the entrance to Silorn is blocked with an enchantment. The team lost
one member in the assault, so they've decided to set up an ambush.
Talk to her about abilities and positioning, the do the same with the others.
You want to station Thalfin and Iver closer to the action and Merete further
away. Join Thalfin and Iver behind a column on the road leading out from the
ruin and wait.
When Thalfin suddenly casts a spell and runs out, do the same. Your target is
your old nemesis, Falcar. He's going to make a break for the ruin and you want
to stop him. Use your paralyzing or burdening spell, power or weapon
enchantment to stop him in his tracks, then finish him off. You can then turn
and help your team get rid of Falcar's supporting staff. Take the Colossal
Black Soul Gem from Falcar's body.
If you just can't get to Falcar fast enough, then you'll have to follow him
into Silorn. Silorn is three levels full of necromancers and undead. Have fun.
When you reach Falcar, kill him and take the special gem.
Return to Traven. Your final task in the Mage's Guild awaits.
[MG18]
Time to put an end to the King of Worms. Traven kills himself, putting his
sould in the Colossal Black Soul Gem you just took from Falcar. Take the gem
and journey to Echo Cavern, which is west of Cloud Ruler Temple. At the door,
you'll be confronted by Bolor Savel, who gleefully informs you he has the only
key for the door. Introduce him to the folly of guarding a door from you, take
his key and enter the cave.
The top two levels of the cave are you standard necromancer-infested lair.
You've seen a lot of these by now. When you reach the bottom, you've found
Mannimarco, King of Worms. Fortunately for you, Mannimarco is a bit
overconfident. Seems he intends to turn you into a Worm Thrall; but, the
special black soul gem prevents that from working.
Don't give Mannimarco time to finish his conversation, cast his Enthrall spell
and then realize it doesn't work. Walk up to him during his speech and hit
him...hit him hard. Keep him off-balance and staggered and the fight should be
easy. If you let him get off a few spells, you could be in trouble. Once he's
dead, loot the place, then return to Arcane University.
Congratulations! You are the new Arch Mage of the Mage's Guild. Primarily what
this means is free alchemy ingredients. There's an enchanted chest in your
room. Put an ingredient in there and, 24 hours later, you'll find lots of that
particular ingredient. (The chest gets cleared out after a week, so come back
for your stuff before then.)
You can also pick any Apprentice on the grounds and take him or her along with
you on adventures. There are still necromancers lying around (refer to
Falcar's note from the "Necromancer's Moon" quest for their locations).
However, there are no more formal quests for the mage's guild.
[SQ00]
~~The Elder Scrolls IV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SIDE QUESTS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~OBLIVION~~
These quests are arranged alphabetically by their title as given in the quest
log. See the Quest Index following for a regional breakdown of the quests. The
quests in this section are all those not tied specifically to the main quest
or any of the four main guilds.
[SQ01]
Imperial City, like any good Roman knock-off, has gladitorial bloodsports. You
can earn some quick cash by joining in the "fun", or, make some less-easy cash
betting on the action. The Arena district is located on the east side of the
city, between the Market district and the Arboretum. The only thing in the
district is the Arena itself, which, amazingly, looks a lot like the Roman
colliseum. The Arena is open for business, whether betting or fighting, from
9am to 9pm every day.
*BONUS*
To the south of the Arena are a pair of sparrers (Redguard and Argonian). They
spar most of the day, every day. Stand and watch them for a few minutes and
you will receive a +5 bonus to your Hand-to-Hand skill.
| Betting
+---------
Hundolin, the gatekeep at the entrance to the Arena, is also the local bookie.
Make a bet on either the Yellow or Blue team for 25, 50 or 100 Septims.
*THERE IS NO WAY TO GUARANTEE A WIN*
The two fighters are randomly equipped, and the fight may be fair--or not. You
can slightly influence the outcome with your Luck attribute. Once past 50, the
higher your Luck, the higher "your" fighter's health. That's it. You take your
chances and hope you win. You can, of course, artifically boost your Luck
before placing a bet in order to move things in your favor, but that still
won't help if your guy gets stuck with light armor, no shield and a dagger and
the other guy gets heavy armor and a claymore.
| Fighting
+----------
Here's where things get interesting. You can make quite a lot of cash working
your way up the ladder--assuming you don't blow it all on healing potions.
Enter the main gate of the Arena, where Hundolin hangs out, and hang a left,
down the stairs into the Bloodworks. Find Owyn and ask him about joining.
There's a uniform required of each combatant, but you can pick Light or Heavy
raiment.
*NOTE* You have to wear the raiment to participate in a match.
This raiment is a full suit of armor, so you can't wear your own cuirass,
greaves, boots or gauntlets. You can wear your own helmet and use any shield
and weapon you like. You can also use spells, etc. Anything goes on the floor
of the Arena.
*BONUS* While you can't wear your own armor in the Arena, you can wear the
Arena raiment anywhere. It's enchanted armor (+2 Personality, +5 Athletics),
with base armor ratings of 10 for the light and 15 for the heavy. This is
pretty decent armor for the beginning of the game, so you might want to stop
by the Arena and join as soon as you exit the sewers. You don't have to start
fighting right away. (Remember, because it's enchanted, you can't repair it
unless you've reached Journeyman rank in Armorer.)
Fighting is a case of just working your way up the ladder. While your
opponents are leveled in keeping with your level, the Arena is a lot easier
once you have some enchanted weapons and a decent selection of spells.
To begin a match, suit up in your Arena raiment and talk to Owyn. He'll give
you a brief hint of what you're facing, and send you on your way up the ramp.
Note that you're fighting for the Blue team and you can't place a bet on
yourself.
ARENA BATTLES
Fight # | Opponent(s) | Reward
--------+----------------------------+----------------------------------------
1 | Fighter | 50 Septims
2 | Fighter | 50 Septims
3 | Archer | 100 Septims, promotion to Brawler
--------+----------------------------+----------------------------------------
4 | Fighter | 100 Septims
5 | Twins: fighter, archer | 100 Septims
6 | Fighter | 150 Septims, promotion to Bloodletter
--------+----------------------------+----------------------------------------
7 | Fighter | 150 Septims
8 | Fighter | 150 Septims
9 | Fighter | 200 Septims, promotion to Myrmidon
--------+----------------------------+----------------------------------------
10 | Fighter (frost dmg dagger) | 200 Septims
11 | Fighter | 200 Septims
12 | Fighter | 250 Septims, promotion to Warrior
--------+----------------------------+----------------------------------------
13 | Fighter | 250 Septims
14 | Mage | 250 Septims
15 | Fighter | 300 Septims, promotion to Gladiator
--------+----------------------------+----------------------------------------
16 | 3 unarmed prisoners | 300 Septims
17 | Fighter | 300 Septims
18 | Fighter | 350 Septims, promotion to Hero
--------+----------------------------+----------------------------------------
19 | Fighter (former Blade) | 350 Septims
20 | Mage (magic resistant) | 350 Septims
21 | 3: Yellow team champion, | 500 Septims, promotion to Champion
| mage and archer |
--------+----------------------------+----------------------------------------
22 | The Gray Prince | 100 Septims, promotion to Grand
| | Champion, continued fights with
| | monsters, and...an Adoring Fan
Tactics for each fight will vary depending on the type of weapon being used
against you:
* One-handed weapon fighters: they are usually too fast for you to stay out
of range and fight with arrows or spells; step in with your own weapon,
block their attacks, then hit them with a power attack
* Two-handed weapon fighters: these guys are good at staggering you, but they
swing their weapons slowly; and they usually move slowly as well; you can
either stay away from them and hit them from range, or keep just out of
range of their weapon, then, just after they swing and miss, swiftly step
in and pop them a few times with a one-handed weapon.
* Mages: there are only two you face one-on-one and the best tactic is to
rush them and stagger them with power attacks
* Archers: like mages, it's best to charge them and stagger them with power
attacks. Use the columns in the center of the arena to "dodge" their arrows.
* Twins: the wood elves are nasty and how you choose your poison is up to you.
Generally, the claymore fighter does a lot more damage to you and is harder
to take down. Try rushing the archer first. She'll keep backing away, which
keeps the fight moving, which should keep the fighter from pounding your
back with her big sword. Once the archer is dead, you can devote your time
to properly dealing with her sister.
* Three prisoners: while they are unarmed and unarmored, they have decent
Hand-to-Hand attacks and there are three of them. You want to separate them
and pick them off one-by-one. Explosive spells (such as Fireball) are a
good way of slowing one or two down. You can also weave in betwee the
columns, which should break them up. By no means let them surround you or
you're dead meat. They move fast, so trying to stay out of range and hitting
them with arrows or spells is a bad idea.
* Yellow team champion and allies: it's another 3-on-1 fight, but actually
is 3-on-2. Owyn has pity on you and gives you the aid of a wild board,
Porkchop. One way of dealing with this fight is concentrating on the
champion and hoping Porkchop occupies her allies enough so they don't pester
you. Or, you can try to quickly take out her allies--they're both ranged
fighters and subject to staggering. In this scenario, you hope the allies
run around enough the champion can't catch up with you and beat on your
backside.
* The Gray Prince: a very tough fighter. The bonus is you get to wear your
own armor. (The orc has a special Raiment of Valor, so you'll want some
enchanted armor--and weapons--of your own.) He's a one-handed fighter so
the same basic tactics apply: block his attacks, then power attack in
return.
Optionally, you can complete "The Origin of the Gray Prince", in
which case gro-Malog will rush out into the Arena, and then beg you to kill
him. If you do this, the killing counts as the murder of an innocent, and
you'll be visited by the Dark Brotherhood the next time you sleep.
Once you've defeated The Gray Prince, you are Grand Champion of the Arena.
Battle Matron Ysabel Andronicus will continue to arrange fights for you; this
time against wild beasts and monsters, depending on your level. The reward is,
likewise, dependent on your level.
Finally, when you exit the Arena after killing The Gray Prince, you are met by
an Adoring Fan. This youngster will follow you around, pestering you
endlessly. You can turn around and kill him, thus earning some skill
experience, and he'll respawn in front of the Arena, where you can go pick him
up in order to kill him again. (Make sure you do this killing out in the
wilderness, so you don't get arrested for it.) Other than that, Adoring Fan is
mostly just useless.
[SQ02]
Rumors are flying about Bruma that a vampire hunter named Raynil Dralas has
killed a vampire in their very midst. Visit the vampire's home, his name is
Bradon Lirrian and he lives on the west side of the chapel. Inside you'll find
city guard Carius Runellius. Raise his Disposition score to 70 and he'll give
you the full story. Bradon's body is on the bed nearby.
Also present is Bradon's distraught wife, Erline. She says her husband was no
vampire and wants you to ferret out the truth. Your journal suggest talking to
a merchant about the location of Dralas, and, in fact, this is just what you
should do. Several of the merchants can point you to Olav's Tap and Tack, next
to the East Gate.
Go see Olav. With a Disposition of at least 70, Olav will give you a key to
search Dralas' room. You can also just break-and-enter. Inside, you can find a
diary partially hidden behind the dresser. Reading it will give you the full
scoop on what's happening.
Return to the Lirrian house and show the journal to Runellius. He'll order a
city-wide search for Dralas and ask you to meet him in one hour at Olav's.
When you meet him, he reports Dralas has made for Boreal Stone Cave. Runellius
wants you to go catch him, as he thinks Dralas might scare off if he sees city
guards shadowing him.
Runellius gives you a time limit of one day, and you must reach Boreal within
that time, else Dralas gets away clean. The cave isn't far west of the city,
and Dralas waits for you almost right inside the door. This can only come to
violence. Retire Dralas from his vampire hunting job and get three keys from
his body.
Use the keys to open the chest nearby and get an ordinary amulet. Return to
Erline Lirrian with the amulet and she "unlocks" it and gives it back, now a
shiny Phylactery of Litheness, which has a Fortify Speed enchantment keyed to
your level.
[SQ03]
VisIt the castle in Chorrol between the hours of 8am and 6pm and talk to
Countess Valga. She is busy hunting a stolen painting. Offer to help and
she'll give you the names of five people:
* Chanel, the court mage, suspect
* Orgnolf, porter, suspect
* Bittneld, guard captain, witness
* Orok gro-Ghoth, steward, witness
* Laythe Wavrick, herald, witness
Speak to all five. Chanel, Orgnolf and gro-Ghoth can usually be found in the
private area of the castle (for which you are given a key). Wavrick typically
hangs out in the audience chamber with the Countess. Bittneld can be a
problem. He makes regular patrols around town. Perhaps you'll get lucky and
find him in the castle, otherwise you're going to have to run him down.
Once you've heard all five stories, it becomes apparent Chanel is hiding
something. You know she spends time in the West Tower, so go there and find
the trap door in the floor. Use the trap door and carefully search to find a
partially completed painting. Activate it to add it to your quest entries.
Now head for the dining room, which is just off the attendance hall, and look
around on the rug. You should spot some paint stains in the shape of
footprints. Activate them to update your journal. Return to the private area
and Chanel's bedroom. Open her lectern to find paint supplies.
Talk to Chanel and Accuse her. You must max out her Disposition score in order
for her to confess to the crime and give you the painting. You now have two
choices:
1) Report in full to the Countess, who rewards you and banishes Chanel.
2) Refuse to accuse either suspect to the Countess, who gives you a little
money anyway. Return the painting to Chanel, who will paint you a picture of
your own that you can display in your house (if you buy a house).
[SQ04]
Each daedric quest involves finding a shrine, bringing an offering, talking to
the spirit of the daedra lord and then running errands for him or her.
Complete the errand and you get a daedric artifact. Each quest has certain
pre-requisites, usually a minimum level, and various offerings.
Most shrines have to be found by exploring. A few are pointed out to you by
various persons. One, Azura's, is blatantly marked for you at a certain point
in the main story. You can "discover" information about the shrines in the
main game in one of several ways:
* Martin will give you a book listing some of the shrines when he gives you
the "Blood of the Daedra" quest in the main story. This is when Azura's
shrine is marked for you.
* You can also find a copy of the same book, "Modern Heretics", in the library
of Arcane University, if you've advanced the Mage's Guild quests enough to
have access to the library.
* You may overhear people talking about daedra worship, which will give you
a new topic (Daedra) with some townsfolk. Using that topic will generally
get you a pointer to a specific shrine.
The quests are listed here by their level requirement.
| Azura [DQ01]
+-------------
Requirements: At least level 2
Offering: Glow dust
Reward: Azura's Star, a re-useable grand soul gem
Azura's shrine is located north-northeast of the Lake Arrius Caverns you visit
in the Dagon Shrine quest part of the main story. It is usually the first
shrine mentioned in the game. The offering, glow dust, is a by-product of the
will-o-wisp, which can be difficult to find. The easiest way to get glow dust
is to go to the Bruma Mage's Guild and ask to join (if not already a member).
Go to the basement and pick some glow dust up from a table in the alchemy
room.
During the hours of dawn (roughly 5 - 7am) or dusk (roughly 5 - 7pm), Activate
the statue of Azura with some glow dust in your pocket. In times past, Azura
sent five followers to kill a vampire lord. They succeeded, but at the price
of becoming vampires themselves. They sealed themselves in the cave of the
vampire lord. Azura wants you to grant them "eternal peace".
Joy. Azura marks a "Gutted Mine" on your map to the southeast. Stock up and
head out. The cavern is small, and contains only the five vampiric followers
of Azura. Advance very slowly and try to take them on one at a time. The first
three tend to be close together (they are marked on your map), so separating
them can be difficult.
Fire works well on vamps, so use that if you have it. You will almost
certainly get infected with porphyric hemophilia (the vampire disease). Don't
worry about it until you've finished the task. The last two vampires are
located in a secret chamber opened with a pull cord in the first large room
you come to.
After all five are dead, return to Azura and she'll reward you with a
re-useable grand soul gem, Azura's Star. If you're heavily dependant on
enchanted weapons, this may be a very useful item. On the other hand, you can
get enchanted weapons recharged at any Mage's Guild hall, and regular soul
gems are found quite frequently.
Once you're done, use a Cure Disease potion or visit a temple in a city to
cure your porphyric hemophilia. Or, get ready to run from sunlight for the
rest of the game. For more about Vampirism, see the section under
Miscellaneous Adventures.
| Sheogorath [DQ02]
+------------------
Requirements: At least level 2
Offering:
Reward:
| Namira [DQ03]
+--------------
Requirements: At least level 5
Personality of 20 or lower
Offering:
Reward:
| Vaermina [DQ04]
+----------------
Requirements: At least level 5
Offering:
Reward:
| Sanguine [DQ05]
+----------------
Requirements: At least level 8
Offering:
Reward:
| Malacath [DQ06]
+----------------
Requirements: At least level 10
Offering:
Reward:
| Meridia [DQ07]
+---------------
Requirements: At least level 10
Offering:
Reward:
| Nocturnal [DQ08]
+-----------------
Requirements: At least level 10
Offering: None
Reward: Skeleton Key, an unbreakable lockpick with Fortify Security 40
Nocturnal's shrine is located just off the road that leads north from Leyawiin
along the east bank of the Nibenay river. Just leave Leyawiin's Northeast Gate
and follow the road. Keep an eye out on your right (east) side as you head
north. The shrine is about halfway to the mouth of Niben Bay. You can get this
marked on your map by talking to one of the mages in the Leyawiin Mage's Guild
(assuming you have Daedra as an available topic).
Nocturnal will only respond to you at night. Her Eye has been stolen and she
wants you to return it. No offering is required. As for leads on the thieves,
you're given only a vague pointer to nearby Leyawiin. Head into town and talk
to any guard. Use the Eye of Nocturnal topic to learn two Argonians, Weebam-Na
and Bejeen, have been boasting about scoring a valuable jewel.
Find Weebam-Na's house using your new objective marker, enter, and talk to
both lizards. They're reticent, and your journal suggests you eavesdrop. Go
into the entry hall and enter Sneak mode. Stand still near the door and you
will eventually hear the two Argonians discuss whether or not the jewel is
safe from the trolls in Tidewater Cave.
Trolls. Goody.
Fire damage works well on trolls, so load up before heading out. Tidewater
Cave sits on the edge of Topal Bay and is just about the most southern point
in all of Cyrodiil. Walk down there and prep for the two trolls you meet
outside the cave.
Once they're down, enter the cave. Your main encounters here will be with
bears, but there are two or three trolls in here as well. If you just want the
Eye, take the first left, left again at the end of the tunnel and then left
again through an underwater passage to find the Eye. Return to Nocturnal's
Shrine and the grateful daedra gives you the Skeleton Key.
This handy device Fortifies your Security skill by 40 points and is an
unbreakable lockpick. Upon obtaining this device, no lock (that does not
specifically require a key) can stand against you. Simply hit Auto Attempt
until the lock opens.
| Peryite [DQ09]
+---------------
Requirements: At least level 10
Offering:
Reward:
| Mephala [DQ10]
+---------------
Requirements: At least level 15
Offering:
Reward:
| Hircine [DQ11]
+---------------
Requirements: At least level 17
Offering:
Reward:
| Molag Bal [DQ12]
+-----------------
Requirements: At least level 17
Offering:
Reward:
| Boethia [DQ13]
+---------------
Requirements: At least level 20
Offering:
Reward:
| Clavicus Vile [DQ14]
+----------------------
Requirements: At least level 20
Offering:
Reward:
| Hermaeus Mora [DQ15]
+---------------------
Requirements: At least level 20
Finished all other daedric quests
Offering:
Reward:
[SQ05]
The rumor mill in Bravil is rife with the story of a ghost who wanders the
coast of Niben Bay. You're referred to Gilgondorin, proprietor of
Silverhome-on-the-Water. He tells you the ghost appears every evening at 8 at
Bawnwatch camp and marks the camp on your map. It is on a point of land
southeast of Bravil.
Travel there and wait until nightfall and watch the ghost appear. You can't
elicit any information from him, so follow him as he begins his solitary
journey down the shores of Niben Bay. On the cliffs above Fort Irony, the
ghost stops, turns and speaks to you.
He identifies himself as one Grantham Blakeley and requests that you free him
from the "mouth of the Panther". Your journal refers you back to Gilgondorin
for more info on the "mouth of the Panther"; however, it's nothing more than
the point where the Panther River empties into the Niben, which just happens
to be directly east of where you are now, across the river.
Swim across and look for the ruined hulk of a ship among the rocks. You can
enter the upper deck the ship through a hole in the side. Inside you'll meet
your fair share of restless spirits. These aren't quite as amiable as
Grantham.
On this upper deck you'll find a couple of spirits and a hatch up to the
captain's cabin (good loot) and a hatch to the middle deck. You can also find
a logbook that reveals the fate of the ship. Fight your way through the middle
deck to the cargo hold, where you'll dispatch the ghost of the lead mutineer.
From his remains, pick up a small key. This opens a door further back in the
hold and inside is the skeleton of Blakeley.
The key will also unshackle the skeleton, which releases Blakeley's spirit to
pursue more pleasant fields of travel. As parting advice, he says the room
contains a map to his "gratitude". Look on the floor behind the post that was
holding the skeleton. Pick up the map you find there, which will pinpoint a
burial place further up the Panther River.
Head upriver, following your objective marker to the loot, which is lodged
between rocks underwater.
[SQ06]
This is a "simple" step-n-fetch quest. Find the "Serpent's Wake", a ship
docked at Anvil. It's the western-most of the two ships in port. On deck a
distraught Varulae has a sad tale...The ship is hers and she sent it to pick
up a crystal ball that belonged to her mother. When the ship returned, she
found the sailors all murdered and roaming the decks as vengeful spirits.
Work your way through three levels of wraiths, with nasty spells and even
nastier swords and retrieve the crystal ball. Return it to Varulae for your
reward, including an enchanted cutlass.
The murders of the sailors will remain unsolved unless you play through the
Dark Brotherhood quests. In "Following a Lead", you find a diary that
implicates a Brotherhood traitor who lived beneath the Anvil lighthouse. In
his diary he writes:
"I did it, mother! I killed them all! I killed them and I cursed them to
wander their ship in undeath for all eternity! They came to talk to the old
man in the lighthouse. When they saw me, they could have kept walking. But no.
They laughed! They laughed at me, mother! They called me names! They said I
was strange, that I was a human rat, living here in the cellar of the
lighthouse. They did not know who they were dealing with! So I snuck on board,
later that night, and I slit their throats. Every last one of them. So there
the Serpent's Wake sits. The ghost ship of Anvil they'll call it now! Ha ha ha
ha ha!"
[SQ07]
This relatively simple quest is picked up outside Imperial City. Heading west,
out of town, past the stables, you'll run into a little hamlet called Weye.
Here you will meet an old man named Aelwin Merowald. He asks for some help.
Seems he has a deal with an alchemist to sell scales from Lake Rumare
slaughterfish. The scales from these particular fish apparently have some rare
alchemical properties.
Unfortunately for Aelwin, a slaughterfish recently got the better of Aelwin's
leg and he can't go after them any more. He wants you to procure 12 sets of
scales so he can make one last sale and finally retire. Your quest marker now
points to a location in Lake Rumare just north of Weye. You'll need water
breathing potions/spells/equipment (or be an Argonian). Fishing in Oblivion
does not involve a rod and reel.
Walk down into the lake toward your quest marker. Find the first fish, kill it
and take its scales. Killing these fish may not be easy, depending on your
level. They can be quite tough and you can't use targeted spells under water.
After a moment, your quest marker will update and point you to the next fish.
Each fish only spawns once you've killed the previous fish, so you can't just
walk around and run into them, you have to follow the quest marker.
Once you have 12 scales, return to Aelwin and hand them over. He'll give you a
ring with Fortify Athletics and Water Breathing enchantment.
If you're of an evil disposition, you can raise Aelwin's Disposition to 70 and
he'll tell you where he keeps all the money he's earned thus far from selling
scales. You'll need the key he keeps on him to open the chest, so either pick
his pocket or kill him, then steal his retirement money. You stinker.
[SQ08]
There are two residents of Imperial City, Ruslan and Luronk gro-Glurzog, who
will complain of being shaken down by a corrup Imperial guard captain. They
were rousted at Jensine's "Good as New" Merchandise in the Market district.
Visit Jensine and boost her Disposition over 70. She'll then tell you the name
of the corrupt soldier: Audens Avidius. Your journal suggest you report
Avidius to the authorities.
If you talk to a soldier, he'll refer you to Captain Hieronymus Lex. (If Lex
has been taken out of the picture because you've been playing through the
Thieves Guild quests, you'll get sent to another Servatius Quintilius.) Use
your quest marker to track the captain down. Either one will be dis-interested
in your report and push you along to Itius Hayn.
Hayn wants to believe you, but he needs two witnesses. Your best bets are
Ruslan and gro-Glurzog. You need a Disposition score of 70 with them to
convince them to talk. (Jensine is a tougher nut to crack.) You can use your
quest markers to find the two and send them along to Hayn. Wait for a day.
Your journal should update that Avidius has been arrested and the quest moves
to completed status.
But wait...
Ten days later (or when you hit 5th level, whichever comes later), Avidius
escapes and comes looking for you. He'll find you, whereever you are, and
attacks. Unfortunately, he attacks with a dagger and wearing nothing but his
prison clothes. Once he's dead, the quest is truly complete.
[SQ09]
Visit the Grey Mare in Chorrol to meet Valus Odiil. His sons are on their way
to clean out some "vermin" from the family farm and Valus wants you to go help
them. Head toward Weynon Priory to find the Odiil boys standing on the road.
Talk to Rallus, the older son, his brother wants nothing to do with you.
Follow them down the road to their farm and stand with them in the vegetable
garden. Kill off three waves of goblins, trying your best to keep the boys
alive. Afterward, speak to Rallus and they will return to Chorrol. Help
yourself to vegetables from the garden to use in potions. (It's not a crime to
take the veggies.)
Return to the Grey Mare and talk to Valus and get Chillrend, an enchanted
sword--but only if both boys survived the goblin raid.
[SQ10]
After completing "Mazoga the Orc", Count Caro offers you and Mazoga positions
as Knights of the White Stallion--if you first kill Black Brugo, leader of the
Black Bow Bandits. (If Mazoga did not survive her earlier encounter at
Fisherman's Rock, you can't perform this quest.)
Talk to Mazoga. She jumps at the chance and she also happens to know where
Brugo has his headquarters and what kind of schedule he keeps. Make your way
to Telepe, an Ayleid ruin northwest of Leyawiin. Make sure you arrive during
the day.
There are two guards, one an annoying archer that fires from the top of the
ruin. You can stand back and trade shots/spells with him, or, go around to the
back of the ruin where a combination of a small ledge and some boulders on the
ground allow you to jump up there with him. Step inside and go down the
stairs. The room to the right has two more Black Bow bandits. Kill them and
collect their bows (Count Caro will pay a bounty for them). Now skulk in the
corner and Wait until after midnight.
Brugo shows up and wonders what happened to his guards. Educate him. He'll
have two cronies with him, but concentrate on him before turning to deal with
the regulars. Take his key, open the gate at the back of the ruin by pushing
the button in the room to the left. Unlock Brugo's treasure chest and take his
portion of the bandit's loot.
Return to Count Caro and sell off the bows you collected (you should have four
or five). Caro makes both you and Mazoga Knights of the White Stallion and
gives you keys to the White Stallion Lodge, which is north of the city on the
west bank of the river. Tell Mazoga, who happily hurries off to settle in.
[SQ11]
This is a continuation of Separated at Birth. You must complete that quest
before you can begin this quest. Talk to Guilbert Jemane in Chorrol after he
has been reunited with his brother Reynald. He mentions he wants to find his
family's old farm and see if it's still occupied by ogres.
It is.
Prepare yourself before venturing forth. Guilbert doesn't exactly know where
the farm is; so, ask NPCs until one of them mentions Sabine Laul. Sabine hangs
out at the Fighter's Guild. Find her and she'll mark the location of the
Jemane family farm, Weatherleah, on your map.
Go to the farm and clear out three ogres wandering the yard outside the house,
then return to Guilbert and escort the brothers to their farm. Talk to
Guilbert again to close out the quest. You can help the Jemane boys one more
time, in the quest Sins of the Father.
[SQ12]
If your Fame score is at least 10, speak to Countess Narina Carvain in Castle
Bruma. She collects Akaviri artifacts and has partially tracked down one
called the Draconian Madstone. The artifact is supposedly at Pale Pass, an
Akaviri headquarters during the wars against Reman during the First Era. The
Countess will, in fact, relate nearly all the ancient history to you if you're
willing to listen.
The upshot is, Carvain has an Akaviri courier's journal along with directions
to Dragonclaw Rock. From the Rock, you can follow the directions west to a
giant statue and then north to the entrance to Serpent's Trail. This is,
basically, a tunnel inhabited by several ogres. Along the way you'll find the
courier's skeleton. Take the orders from the body and proceed.
You exit Serpent's Trail into Pale Pass. The path is constantly blocked by
ogres, so you're either in for a dozen or more rough fights or you need to
sneak a lot. You'll finally reach the Fortress of Pale Pass, which is guarded
by two more ogres. These you'll have to dispatch so they don't follow you into
the ruins.
Inside you'll be in the "Mouth of the Serpent". Your goal is the "Venom of the
Serpent" and here's the quickest route to your objective. Go down the stairs
and watch out for the swinging log trap at the bottom. Just past the trap,
turn left and follow the hallway around until it crosses over where you just
were. You have to make a running jump across the gap to reach a door to the
"Scales of the Serpent".
In Scales, follow the hall straight until you are forced to turn left, then
continue straight to a raised bridge. Use the nearby lever to lower the bridge
and go across to the "Fangs of the Serpent". You are facing a group of
columns, some of which have arrow traps. To safely go around the columns, hug
the right-side wall until you reach another raised bridge.
TRAPPED COLUMNS
Fangs of the Serpent
___ A ___ A,B = Doors to "Eyes of the Serpent"
| | C = Door to "Scales of the Serpent"
| O OX| O = Column
B | X = Area covered by arrow trap
| OXXXXXOX| D = Drawbridge
| X D
|XO O |
C X X |
| O O |
|_________|
Turn the wheel to lower the bridge, go across and turn left to reach Venom.
Inside is the spirit of the Akaviri commander, Mishaxhi. Talk to him. If you
have the orders you picked up earlier, you can give them to him and he'll
depart, taking his undead warriors with him. The way is now open to the
Draconian Madstone.
You can also attempt to kill Mishaxhi, but that's going to be a difficult
task. Either way, once you have the Madstone, take the door just to the right
of the Madstone and you'll come back out in Scales, right above the bridge you
lowered earlier. Go back out the way you came in. Once you're outdoors, you
can Fast Travel back to Bruma and give the Madstone to Countess Carvain. She
rewards you with the Ring of the Vipereye, which has Fortify Agility and
Resist Magicka enchantments.
[SQ13]
You can find Mazoga hanging around Castle Leyawiin, making a nuisance of
herself. If you try to talk to her, she'll refuse since you aren't the count.
Talk to the count instead about "Service to Leyawiin". He asks you to find out
what Mazoga wants and deal with it.
When you talk to Mazoga again, you can now represent the count and Mazoga
launches into her tale. Or, at least, part of it. She wants to see a hunter
named Weebam-Na. Mssr. Na has a house that is not far from the castle's
entrance. You'll need to get his Disposition over 50 in order for him to agree
to go see Mazoga with you.
Mazoga wants Weebam-Na to guide her to a camp at Fisherman's Rock, a ways up
the Niben River. Weebam-Na refuses since Mazoga won't say why she needs to get
to Fisherman's Rock. She then appeals to you, telling you a bit more of the
story. Leave by the Northeast Gate and trek upriver along the east bank until
you reach the camp at Fisherman's Rock, which is occupied by bandits.
Mazoga will jump ahead and carry on a conversation with the bandit leader. As
soon as the two of them start in with the fighting, join it, keeping the
minions off Mazoga's back. Return to Castle Leyawiin and report in to the
Count. He is pleased by the adventure and offers both you and Mazoka positions
as Knights of the White Stallion...If you first complete the quest by the same
name.
[SQ14]
While wandering around the Temple district of Imperial City, you'll be met by
one Ralsa Norvalo. She asks that you meet her husband, Gilen, at the house of
an elf named Seridur. Seridur lives in the Temple district.
Enter his house and Seridur takes you down to the basement and introduces you
to the Order of the Virtuous blood. They're vampire hunters.
Oh, goody.
They've identified a vampire, one Roland Jenseric. Break-and-enter Jenseric's
house, which is across the garden from Seridur. On the table near the door is
a book, and there is a note on top of the book. Pick up the note to learn the
location of a cabin hideaway used by Jenseric.
This cabin is east-northeast of Imperial City, along the road to Cheydinhal.
When you enter, Jenseric wants to talk. He, of course, claims Seridur is the
vampire and gives a little different story. Who's telling the truth? Well,
Roland is, but you can kill him anyway and return to Seridur for a reward.
Or, you can believe Roland. He suggests asking about Seridur at First Edition
Books in the Market district. Do so. Phintias, proprieter of First Edition,
reports that Seridur likes to visit Memorial Cave to the southeast.
When you enter the cave, your journal updates that you've found a vampire
lair. Uh huh. Remember, fire is your friend when fighting vampires and make
sure you visit a chapel after you finish to rid yourself of porphyric
hemophilia. You've got a bunch of animals, some undead and several
vampires--including Seridur--to dispatch.
Return to Roland at his cabin and inform him of the good news. Meet him back
in Imperial City at Seridur's house. The Order of the Virtuous Blood is going
to carry on the good work of hunting vampires. From now on, they'll pay you
250 Septims for any vampire dust you bring them, starting with what you picked
up at Memorial Cave.
[SQ15]
The Gray Prince is Agronak gro-Malog, Grand Champion of the Arena, and spends
his time down in the Bloodworks, working out. Talk to him and he professes
he's the half-son of a Lord Lovidicus. He gives you a key, given him by his
mother, and asks that you find out what it unlocks in Crowhaven, the place of
his birth.
Crowhaven is at the extreme west end of Cyrodiil, northwest of Anvil. It's
essentially a one-level dungeon (a second level has a trifling amount of loot
and some undead encounters). You'll find it filled with wild animals, mostly
wolves, until you come to a locked door. gro-Malog's key opens the door and
you've found the quarters of Lovidicus himself.
Lovidicus will attack you on sight, and you'll have to kill him. Find his
journal to learn the truth, then return it to gro-Malog. He's distraught he is
the half-son of a vampire. If you play through the Arena, gro-Malog will beg
you to challenge him, then surrender to your sword during the match.
[SQ16]
Not long after you've entered Skingrad the first time, you'll be approached by
a nervous elf named Glarthir. He wants you to meet him behind the Chapel of
Julianos at midnight. You can go any day--Glarthir duitifully shows up at
midnight every night until you meet him. When you do meet him, he tells you
there are people out to get him and he wants you to spy on them.
If you turn Glarthir down, he goes crazy, runs back to his house, gets a
battleaxe and goes on a killing spree. His targets are the three people he
wants you to spy on: Bernadette Peneles, Toutius Sextius and Davide Surilie
(whose wine you've seen all over Cyrodiil). You can do a few things here: wait
until he attacks his first victim, then step in and kill him (if you kill him
before he attacks it is considered murder); run along behind him and watch
until the city guard finally catches up to him and kills him; or, help him out
(you'll have to pretty much depopulate Skingrad if you go this route).
The other option is to humor Glarthir. He'll ask you to spy on Bernadette
Peneles, then report back at midnight the next night. You don't have to
actually do anything, just Wait until midnight, then report in. The same is
true of Toutius Sextius and Davide Surilie.
If you tell Glarthir none of the targets is interested in him, which they
aren't, he believes you're in on the plot and tries to kill you...with his
fists, and not wearing any armor. Well, that won't end pleasantly--for him,
anyway. You can loot his corpse and get the key to his house, which you can
then loot for whatever you can find.
If you lie and report even one target as a spy, Glarthir offers a reward of
1,000 Septims if you kill any conspirators. You can make the hit and collect
the reward; you can turn the note over to the constabulary, who will chase
after Glarthir and give him the pointed end of justice; or, you can show the
note to Davide Surilie, who, along with his brothers, will deal with the
matter personally.
So, basically, anything you do ends with Glarthir dead. Simply Waiting one day
at a time and reporting the truth is, thus, the quickest way to end this
quest.
[SQ17]
This quest is added as soon as you load a game after having installed the
official mod: Orrery DLC2. (See the Mods section for information on obtaining
the mod.) After installing the mod, the next time you load a game (or leave
the tutorial sewers), you get a note from Bothiel, resident astronomer at
Arcane University.
It seems she is attempting to repair the Imperial Orrery, an astronomical
device, but parts she was having delivered were stolen. Evidence points to
Camp Ales as a possible base for the bandits who stole the parts. Camp Ales is
due north of Kvatch. Travel there and kill the lone bandit inhabiting the
place. From his body, get an undelivered message and the first Dwarven part.
The message points you to four other camps: Dagny's Camp, Brotch Camp, Bodean
Camp and Varus Camp. These camps are arranged in a rectangular pattern around
Ales. Travel to each one and kill the bandit or bandits you find there. From
one of the bodies in each camp, retrieve a Dwarven part for the Orrery. At the
last camp you vist, you'll face the bandit leader and two minions, so prep for
a major battle before entering the camp.
After all five Dwarven parts are in your pockets, Fast Travel to Arcane
University. If you have not completed the Mage's Guild Recommendations quests,
Bothiel will be waiting for you, during normal hours, in the Arch Mage's
Lobby. (The only place open to the general public.) If you are a member of the
Mage's Guild with access to Arcane University, you may find Bothiel elsewhere.
Just use your objective marker to track her down.
After delivering the parts, Wait until the next day and visit Bothiel again.
She'll give you a key to the Orrery, which is accessible from a door in the
Arch Mage's Lobby. Go up to the Orrery and Activate it.
Once activated, the Orrery will permanently grant you a greater power
depending on the phase of the moon. Just Activate the Orrery any time you want
to gain a power. These powers are just like racial powers: use them once per
24 hours, and each has a duration of 60 seconds.
To figure out which power you will get, look up the number of days that have
passed since you started the game (available on the Accomplishments tab of
your Stats menu). If the number of days passed is greater than 23, subtract 24
and keep subtracting 24 until you have a number from 0 to 23, then find the
power in the list below.
* Days 0, 1 & 2 - Masser's Might: Strength +20, Speed -20
* Days 3, 4 & 5 - Masser's Grace: Agility +20, Endurance -20
* Days 6, 7 & 8 - Secunda's Will: Willpower +20, Intelligence -20
* Days 9, 10 & 11 - Secunda's Opportunity: Luck +20, Personality -20
* Days 12, 13 & 14 - Masser's Alacrity: Speed +20, Strength -20
* Days 15, 16 & 17 - Secunda's Magnetism: Personality +20, Luck -20
* Days 18, 19 & 20 - Secunda's Brilliance: Intelligence +20, Willpower -20
* Days 21, 22 & 23 - Masser's Courage: Endurance +20, Agility -20
E.g: 73 days have passed since you started the game. 73 - 24 = 49. This is
still greater than 23. 49 - 24 = 25. This is still greater than 23. 25 - 24 =
1. The power granted on day 1 is Masser's Might.
You can only have one power at a time. Each time you use the Orrery, whatever
Orrery-granted power you currently have will be replaced by the new Orrery
power.
[SQ18]
Talk to NPCs around Chorrol and find out they've seen the local drunk, Reynald
Jemane, in Cheydinhal--sober no less. But, when confronted, he claims he
doesn't know his buddies from Chorrol. Track down Reynald, who will give you
50 gold to go to Cheydinhal and find out who's impersonating him.
Travel to Cheydinhal and ask around about Reynald Jemane. The people in this
town don't know a Reynald, but they do know a Guilbert Jemane. Find him and
you'll learn some history of these two brothers. Guilbert will go to Chorrol;
return there after a couple of days, once the brothers have had a chance at a
reunion. Track down Guilbert in Chorrol and talk to him to finish this quest,
and start the next in the series...Legacy Lost.
[SQ19]
Whilst wandering about Chorrol, you may meet an Argonian named Dar-Man. Be
polite to her and you get instant 20-point Diposition increases with both
Dar-Ma and her mother, who runs Northern Goods and Trade. At least three days
later, provided you've left Chorrol for another city and then returned, you'll
be able to talk to Seed-Neeus, the mother, and find out Dar-Ma is missing.
(If you failed to talk to Dar-Ma earlier, or were impolite to her, then you'll
have to pick up the rumors of Dar-Ma going missing and then confront her
mother with this information.)
Seed-Neeus explains Dar-Ma went to make a delivery to Hackdirt, a little
village to the south. She's overdue for her return. Head out the south gate of
Chorrol and make your way to Hackdirt. This nasty little town is filled with
even nastier people.
You can poke around town, talking to people identified by Seed-Neeus. You can
find Dar-Ma's horse, Blossom. You can even find Dar-Ma's diary in a room in
the Moslin Inn. But, in the end, none of this leads anywhere except the
conclusion something is badly wrong in Hackdirt.
The lone help you get is from Jiv Hiriel. Find him and speak to him. He says
to come meet him at his house between 6pm and midnight. Show up on schedule
and he'll fill you in on the whole story. There's still things left unsaid.
Who are the Deep Ones? What are the Brethren changing into? (The whole things
sounds suspiciously like vampiric activity, but nothing is ever confirmed.)
In any case, Hiriel gives you a key to the Hackdirt caverns and tells you to
wait until the middle of the night and use the trapdoor in Moslin's Inn.
Excellent advice. Wait until 2 or 3 in the morning, then enter the Inn and
find the trapdoor.
Drop down into the caverns and, right around the corner, is the cell with
Dar-Ma. Release her using your trapdoor key and head back to the surface. Find
Blossom behind the Dry Goods store and Dar-Ma will mount up. You can then lead
her back to Chorrol. Once you've reunited mother and daughter, Seed-Neeus
gives you a +5 increase to your Mercantile skill.
[SQ20]
This is, essentially, the third and final part of the Jemane brothers quests
(begun in Separated at Birth and continued in Legacy Lost). The quest begins a
few days after you've dropped the Jemane boys at Weatherleah. The next time
you're in Chorrol and out and about at night, you'll be approached by one
Fathis Ules, a Thieves Guild fence.
Seems the Jemane's father wasn't a noble and honorable man, but a thief who
decided to keep his last score rather than fence it to Fathis. Fathis knows
the item was stored at Weatherleah and suspects the ogres took it back to
their home cave after sacking the place.
They did.
Fathis points out Redguard Valley Cave on your map, it's due south of Chorrol.
Travel to the cave and take care of the goblins guarding the door. Inside, the
cave is infested with ogres. You have to find the ogre chieftan and kill him
to retrieve the Honorblade of Chorrol. You get a journal entry that suggest
you might want to see someone in the castle about this.
You can sell it to Fathis Ules, for a rather large amount of gold. You can
keep it for yourself (though this leaves the quest as incomplete). Preferably,
you will head for Castle Chorrol and see the steward, Laythe Wavrick. He
identifies the sword, takes it from you, and gives you the Escutheon of
Chorrol shield (Fortify Endurance and Reflect Damage) in return.
If you handed the sword over to Wavrick, head out to Weatherleah and visit the
Jemane boys. Talking to Guilbert nets you an additional reward as well as his
thanks.
[SQ21]
Rumors in Anvil mention a gang of women preying on married men. When you
pursue the topic, you are pointed to Maelona. You may also run into Maelona
before hearing the rumors. Either way, talk to Maelona about her husband,
Gogan's, involvement with these women. Seems they took a family heirloom and
Maelona wants you to get it back. She points you to The Flowing Bowl as the
base of operations for the gane.
The Flowing Bowl is a tavern in the docks area outside the southwest gate in
Anvil. Enter and wait a bit. You'll be approached by either Faustina Cartia or
Signy Home-Wrecker. If you're a male, you'll be tempted with delights beyond
your wildest dreams. If you're female, you'll be offered a position with the
gang.
Either way, you're invited to the Gweden farmhouse at 11:00 that evening.
Travel to the farmhouse, southeast of Anvil and now marked on your map, and
enter during the 11pm hour. You'll talk to Faustina. Regardless of your gender
and the original reason for the invitation, the talk ends in violence.
You'll have to fight Faustina, Signy and a third member of the gang, Tsarinna.
This part is difficult because you're confined to the small farmhouse and have
three foes to deal with. Anything you can do to immobilize one or two while
you work on the others is a good thing.
When all three are dead, Maelona and her "husband" Gogan enter the farmhouse,
in the normal work clothes: uniforms of the Anvil city guard. They've been
working undercover trying to stop the gang and decided to use you as bait.
Nice, ain't it? Loot the bodies for a key to the basement and go check it out.
It's filled with the swag collected by the gang in earlier conquests, so help
yourself.
[SQ22]
While not part of the Mage's Guild quests, you can get this task once you've
finished the Bravil Recommendation for the Mage's Guild. After completing that
quest for Kud-Ei, speak to her again. She'll ask that you help her friend,
Henantier. You can also get this quest by speaking to various NPCs around
Bravil until one of the rumors concerns the missing Henantier.
Speak to Kud-Ei about Henantier and she'll explain he is trapped, but she
knows where he is. Agree to follow her to Henantier's house, where you find
the unfortunate fellow trapped in his own dreams. Kud-Ei gives you Henantier's
Dream Amulet. Equip it, then rest in the bed next to Henantier.
You find yourself next to Henantier in a dream-version of his house. There are
four portals: Tests of Patience and Perception upstairs, Tests of Courage and
Resolve downstairs. You have no equipment and cannot cast spells. You must use
what you find in each portal to retrieve an element of Henantier's personality
and restore him to himself.
*NOTE* At any time during these tests, if you are low on health, you can use
the Wait function to wait an hour and fully restore your health and magicka.
| Patience
+----------
At the beginning you can retrieve a mysterious scroll from the chest. This is
a map across three arrow traps ahead. Make your way safely across the traps,
either following the map the game gives you, or these more easily decipherable
maps:
*HINT* Use third person view and walk (don't run) to make sure you walk across
the correct squares. This is the test of Patience, after all. In these maps,
'S' marks the safe squares.
TRAP 1 TRAP 2 TRAP 3
S X X X X X X X S X S X X X X X X X
| | |
S X X X X X S--S--S X S X X X S--S--S--S
| | | | |
S--S X X X S--S X X X S--S--S--S--S X X S
| | |
X S X X X S X X X X X X X X S--S
| |
X S--S--S X X X X X X S X
| |
X X X S X X X X S--S--S--S--S X
|
X X S X X X X X
|
X X S X X X X X
Once past the third trap you can pick up the Element of Patience, which
returns you to Henantier's dream room.
| Perception
+------------
Pick up a torch from the chest at the beginning of this stage and carefully
pick your way around pressure plates. The first pressure plate sets off a
falling rock trap. Beyond are swinging blades. You can't stop them, but you
can dodge them easily enough.
Past those are poisonous gas traps--stay away from them--then avoid the
pressure plate that sets off another falling rock trap. Next is a broad avenue
with blades overhead. You can try running through, or carefully walk in
between each set and wait for them to rise again.
Beyond is a hill of blocks with several pressure plates. Avoid them or suffer
frost damage (Nords may choose to just run through...) Now you can get the
Element of Perception and return to the main room.
| Courage
+---------
The first door you come to downstairs leads to the Test of Courage. Inside the
chest is a Weak Potion of the Sea (water breathing for 30 seconds). Drink the
potion and dive in. Navigate carefully--you'll have to occasionally turn the
camera to twist your way through the tunnels. Halfway through is another chest
with another potion--just in time to injest to make it the rest of the way
through. When you surface, the Element of Courage is there for the taking.
| Resolve
+---------
You get to fight two minotaurs. Yay! Suit up with items from the chest at the
beginning of the test and take on the minotaurs in whatever fashion suits you.
You may be able to just dispose of them using the Staff of Lightning,
regardless of your class. Once the minotaurs are dead, stairs rise from the
ground leading up to the Element of Resolve.
After collecting all four elements, speak to dream-Henantier about Dreamworld
and you will both wake up in the real world. Henantier gives you several
scrolls as a reward. You don't keep anything you picked up in the dream world.
[SQ23]
Follow rumors in Bruma pointing to a spat over money between Arnora and
Jorundr. Find Arnora, she's usually at her house behind the chapel, and get
her Disposition above 60. She then tells you the "spat" rumor was started by
herself to lure an adventurer in for a little scheme.
If you're up for a bit of skullduggery, agree to help her out and she'll lay
out the whole tale. She and Jorundr were petty thieves who finally decided to
strike the big time by stealing money form an Imperial tax convoy. During the
fracas, Jorundr killed a soldier. They escaped and hid; but, while Arnora was
out collecting supplies, the Bruma guard showed up and arrested Jorundr.
Unfortunately for Arnora, Jorundr had moved the stash while she was gone and
she can't get him to tell her where it is. She promises half the loot if you
will go speak to Jorundr and find out where the cache is hidden. Go to Castle
Bruma, and hang a right through the guard's room and down the stairs to the
prison. Ask the guard to speak to a prisoner and he takes you in to the main
cell room.
Find Jorundr (he's the only prisoner in the place) and talk to him. He refuses
to speak to you. He doesn't trust anyone who's "on the outside", so to speak.
Simple enough, all you have to do is get yourself arrested. You can do
anything, the guard who let you in is helpfully standing at your shoulder
shouting orders. Punch him, or pick the lock on a cell door or rifle through a
chest. Whatever suits your fancy.
Choose to go to jail and you'll be thrown in the cell with Jorundr. Talk to
him again. Now he gives you his side of the story. (The other side of the
coin, get it?) Arnora was the one who killed the soldier and Jorundr believes
she set him up by turning him into the Bruma constabulary. But, he was bright
enough to move the loot and that is frustrating her. He knows he's done for,
so he promises to tell you the location of the loot if you'll do one eeny,
teeny, tiny thing for him...kill Arnora and bring back the family amulet she
always wears.
Return to Arnora's house. You have two choices:
* Whack her. This counts as a murder and you may be arrested for the crime.
Don't bother with the amulet she's wearing, get the key from her corpse and
find the chest next to her bed. That contains the "true" amulet. Return to
Jorundr.
* Tell her of Jorundr's request. She suggests a trick: she'll give you the
amulet and you tell Jorundr she's dead. She'll give you a key and direct
you to the chest next to her bed where you can get the amulet. Return to
Jorundr.
Jorundr accepts the evidence of the amulet, whether Arnora is actually dead or
not, and gives you the directions to the cache. It will now be marked for you
on your map, just outside the North Gate. Head for the marker. If you killed
Arnora, the loot is yours.
If you fooled Jorundr, you'll run into corrupt guard Tyrellius Logellus (you
encountered him while in prison, but couldn't talk to him). He overheard your
conversation with Jorundr, went and killed Arnora and then waited by the cache
for you to show up so he can tie up all the loose ends. Demonstrate to him the
error of his ways, then collect the loot. To officially close the quest, go to
Arnora's house to confirm her death.
[SQ24]
Walmart has moved into the Imperial City Market District and the Mom & Pop
stores aren't happy about it. You can get this quest started from several
different shopkeepers if you ask about Thoronir; however, your first step is
always to talk to Jensine of "Just Like New" Goods and she can also give you
the quest. Make her shop your first stop when entering the Market District.
Jensine wants you to find out how Thoronir is undercutting everyone else.
Visit Thoronir's shop, The Copious Coinpurse, and ask about his Inventory.
He'll get all sly on you and you'll get an entry in your journal that says you
should follow him. Wait outside his shop until the 8:00pm hour. Thoronir will
exit and you should follow him. He goes various places (The Merchant's Inn,
the Arboretum), but whereever he ends up, he hangs around until the 11:00pm
hour. So when he stops moving, use Wait to jump ahead to that time.
Follow him back to the Market District and a little garden behind his shop. He
has a meeting with a man named Agarmir. Walk toward them until they start
talking. (You don't have to Sneak.) Listen to their conversation, and then
follow Agarmir per your journal's instruction. He goes to his house in the
Talos Plaza district. Your journal instructs you to wait until Agarmir leaves
his house. Agarmir only leaves in the afternoon (around 4pm) on weekdays and
in the mornings (around 8am) on weekends. Wait until the appropriate time and
you should see Agarmir leave his house.
After he leaves, wait until no guards are present, then pick the lock on his
house door (Average lock) and his basement door (Average lock). In the
basement, take the Macabre Manifest and leave Agarmir's house. Return to the
Copious Coinpurse and show the Manifest to Thoronir.
After, go to the Imperial Green Way and find the marked tomb on your map (it's
on the south side of the area). Enter and trip Agarmir's little trap. He and a
buddy will try to put you to rest. Agarmir is using an enchanted sword, which
might be a nice weapon for you once you've slipped it from his cold, dead
fingers. Grab the shovel from the rear of the tomb and any loot you can find.
Return to Thoromir and then to Jensine to complete the quest.
[SQ25]
The rumor mill in Anvil will eventually give you a name, Velwyn Benirus.
Inquire after him and learn he hangs out at the Count's Arms. (You can also
just go to the Count's Arms and find Benirus.) He offers to sell you his
family's mansion for a mere 5,000 Septims.
How could you possible pass up such a deal? As soon as you complete the
transaction, Benirus high-tails it out of town. The mansion is located in the
northeastern section of town. Paying a visit reveals you just bought a
wonderful restoration project.
Try to sleep in the upstairs bed and get even more bad news: an attack by
three ghosts. Once they are gone, head downstairs and find a vase that fell
and broke during the ruckus. Underneath is a skeletal hand and a piece of
paper. The paper reveals Benirus' grandfather, Lorgren, had a nasty habit of
conducting necromancy experiments on the citizens of Anvil. The current guild
leader, Carahil, entombed Lorgren in a sealed room in the basement (you may
have marked the door and seal in an earlier inspection of the premises).
Return to the Count's Arms and inquire after Velwyn. You are told he departed
for Imperial City. Head there yourself and ask after Velwyn Benirus and you
should eventually find someone who knows a Benirus is staying at the King and
Queen Tavern in the Elven Gardens district. Go there and confront Belirus.
He feels sorry for giving you a cursed mansion and agrees to return to Anvil
and help you sort it out. Go back to Anvil and the Count's Arms. Talk to
Velwyn and then follow him to the mansion. Once you enter the mansion, you
take the lead. You'll have to fight your way through a number of ghosts, both
on the upper floors and in the basement.
Alternatively, you can race past the ghosts to the portal and then defend
Velwyn while he opens it. Once the portal is open, the ghost disappear. Enter
the crypt and find the altar with Lorgren Benirus' skeleton. Activate the
altar and listen to Lorgren's contrite speech. Then Activate the skeleton with
the skeletal hand you picked up earlier in your inventory.
Oh. Look at that. It was a ruse. How surprising. Once Lorgren reforms, race to
him and smack him with your best weapon as quickly as possible. Once the lich
is dead, loot the tomb, then leave, re-sealing the portal behind you. You'll
find the mansion is now fully restored and is probably the nicest house you
can buy in Cyrodiil.
Definitely worth 5,000 Septims and a little ghosthunting.
[SQ26]
The rumor mill in Leyawiin buzzes with the strange noises and awful smells
coming from Rosentia Gallenus' house. Enter her house and find the fair lady
surrounded by scamps she cannot rid herself of. Seems she picked up a cursed
staff. Gallenus sends you to consult her friend, Alves Uvenim at the Mage's
Guild.
Uvenim reveals the staff can only be handed off to a willing recipient and can
only be disposed of at a shrine to Sheogorath in Darkfathom Cave, southeast of
Leyawiin. Return to Gallenus, who is only too happy to give up the staff and
the scamps to you.
Trudge (the staff Drains your Speed by 20 points) down to the cave and fight
your way through a dozen or so daedra. Once you reach the shrine, you can drop
the staff anywhere near the altar and the scamps will stay put. Return to
Gallenus for your reward.
[QL00]
~~The Elder Scrolls IV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
QUEST INDEX
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~OBLIVION~~
To find the mini-walkthrough for a quest, find the quest title in one of the
two lists below, copy the section code and use your browser's Search function
to search for that section code. If there's no section code for the quest,
that mini-walkthrough has not yet been completed.
[QL01]
Accidents Happen (Dark Brotherhood)
Affairs of a Wizard (Dark Brotherhood)
Ahdarji's Heirloom (Thieves Guild)
Allies for Bruma (Main Story)..........................................MS13
Ambush (Mage's Guild)..................................................MG17
Amelion's Debt (Fighter's Guild)
Another Dark Exile
Anvil Recommendation (Mage's Guild)....................................MG01
Arena, The.............................................................SQ01
Arrow of Extrication (Thieves Guild)
Assassinated Man, The (Dark Brotherhood)
Assassin's Gambit, The
Attack on Fort Sutch
Azani Blackheart (Fighter's Guild)
Azura (Daedric Quest)..................................................DQ01
Bad Medicine (Dark Brotherhood)
Battle for Castle Kvatch, The........................................MS13-E
Bear Season
Blood of the Daedra (Main Story).......................................MS09
Blood of the Damned
Blood of the Divines (Main Story)......................................MS10
Blood Price
Bloodworm Helm, The (Mage's Guild).....................................MG15
Boethia (Daedric Quest)
Boots of Springheel Jak (Thieves Guild)
Bravil Recommendation (Mage's Guild)...................................MG02
Breaking the Siege of Kvatch (Main Story)..............................MS04
Broken Vows (Dark Brotherhood)
Brotherhood Betrayed, A................................................SQ02
Bruma Gate (Main Story)................................................MS12
Bruma Recommendation (Mage's Guild)....................................MG03
Brush with Death, A
Canvas the Castle......................................................SQ03
Cast Out of the Thieves Guild
Caught in the Hunt
Cheydinhal Recommendation (Mage's Guild)...............................MG04
Clavicus Vile (Daedric Quest)
Coldest Sleep, The (Dark Brotherhood)
Collector, The
Confront the King (Mage's Guild).......................................MG18
Corruption and Conscience
Dagon Shrine (Main Story)..............................................MS07
Daedric Quests.........................................................SQ04
Dark Brotherhood, The
Dark Exile, A
Darkness Eternal
Dead Drop, The
Defense of Bruma (Main Story)..........................................MS14
Deliver the Amulet (Main Story)........................................MQ02
Den of Thieves (Fighter's Guild)
Desolate Mine, The (Fighter's Guild)
Directions from Beggars
Drunk and Disorderly (Fighter's Guild)
Elven Maiden, The (Thieves Guild)
Enter the Eliminator
Eternal Exile
Expelled from the Fighter's Guild
Final Justice (Dark Brotherhood)
Find the Heir (Main Story).............................................MS03
Finding the Thieves Guild (Thieves Guild)
Fingers of the Mountain (Mage's Guild)...............................MG05-A
Fingers of the Mountain, Part II (Mage's Guild)......................MG05-B
Following a Lead (Dark Brotherhood)
Forlorn Watchman, The..................................................SQ05
Fugitives, The (Fighter's Guild)
Ghost Ship of Anvil, The...............................................SQ06
Go Fish................................................................SQ07
Goblin Trouble
Goblin Wars
Gravefinder's Repose, The
Great Gate (Main Story)................................................MS15
Hermaeus Mora (Daedric Quest)
Hircine (Daedric Quest)
Hist, The (Fighter's Guild)
Honor Thy Mother (Dark Brotherhood)
Imperial Corruption....................................................SQ08
Imperial Dragon Armor (Main Story).....................................MS18
Independent Thievery (Thieves Guild)
Infiltration (Fighter's Guild)
Information at a Price (Mage's Guild)..................................MG13
Information Gathering (Fighter's Guild)
Killing Field, The.....................................................SQ09
Kiss Before Dying, A (Dark Brotherhood)
Knife in the Dark, A (Dark Brotherhood)
Knights of the White Stallion..........................................SQ10
Legacy Lost............................................................SQ11
Leyawiin Recommendation (Mage's Guild).................................MG06
Liberation or Apprehension? (Mage's Guild).............................MG12
Lifting the Vale.......................................................SQ12
Light the Dragonfires (Main Story).....................................MS17
Lonely Wanderer, The (Dark Brotherhood)
Lost Histories (Thieves Guild)
Mage's Staff, A (Mage's Guild).........................................MG08
Malacath (Daedric Quest)
Master's Son, The (Fighter's Guild)
Matter of Honor, A (Dark Brotherhood)
May the Best Thief Win (Thieves Guild)
Mazoga the Orc.........................................................SQ13
Mephala (Daedric Quest)
Meridia (Daedric Quest)
Miscarcand (Main Story)................................................MS11
Misdirection (Thieves Guild)
Molag Bal (Daedric Quest)
More Unfinished Business (Fighter's Guild)
My Brother's Keeper
Mystery at Harlun's Watch (Fighter's Guild)
Namira (Daedric Quest)
Necromancer's Amulet, The (Mage's Guild)...............................MG16
Necromancer's Moon (Mage's Guild)......................................MG11
Newheim's Flagon (Fighter's Guild)
Next of Kin (Dark Brotherhood)
Night Mother's Child, The
No Rest for the Wicked
No Stone Unturned
Noble's Daughter, The (Fighter's Guild)
Nocturnal (Daedric Quest)..............................................DQ08
Nothing You Can Possess
Of Secret and Shadow (Dark Brotherhood)
Order of the Virtuous Blood............................................SQ14
Origin of the Gray Prince..............................................SQ15
Paradise (Main Story)..................................................MS16
Paranoia...............................................................SQ16
Path of Dawn, The (Main Story).........................................MS06
Permanent Retirement (Dark Brotherhood)
Peryite (Daedric Quest)
Plot Revealed, A (Mage's Guild)........................................MG14
Potato Snatcher, The
Purification, The (Dark Brotherhood)
Raid on Greyland
Rat Problem, A (Fighter's Guild)
Renegade Shadowscale, The (Dark Brotherhood)
Repairing the Orrery (Official Mod)....................................SQ17
Revenge Served Cold
Sanguine (Daedric Quest)
Scheduled for Execution (Dark Brotherhood)
Secrets of the Ayleids
Seeking Your Roots
Separated at Birth.....................................................SQ18
Shadow Over Hackdirt, A................................................SQ19
Sheogorath (Daedric Quest)
Sins of the Father.....................................................SQ20
Siren's Deception, The.................................................SQ21
Skingrad Recommendation (Mage's Guild).................................MG07
Spies (Main Story).....................................................MS08
Stone of St. Alessia, The (Fighter's Guild)
Sunken One, The
Taking Care of Lex (Thieves Guild)
Tears of the Savior
Through a Nightmare, Darkly............................................SQ22
To Serve Sithis
Trolls of Forsaken Mine (Fighter's Guild)
Turning a Blind Eye (Thieves Guild)
Tutorial (Main Story)..................................................MS01
Two Sides of the Coin..................................................SQ23
Ulterior Motives (Mage's Guild)........................................MG09
Ultimate Heist, The (Thieves Guild)
Unexpected Voyage, An
Unfinished Business (Fighter's Guild)
Unfortunate Shopkeeper, The (Fighter's Guild)
Unfriendly Competition.................................................SQ24
Untaxing the Poor (Thieves Guild)
Vaermina (Daedric Quest)
Vahtacen's Secret (Mage's Guild).......................................MG10
Vampire Cure
Venerable Vintage, A
Wabbajack
Wandering Scholar, The (Fighter's Guild)
Watery Grave, A (Dark Brotherhood)
Wayward Knight, The (Main Story).....................................MS13-A
Welcome to the Family
Weynon Priory (Main Story).............................................MS05
When the Vow Breaks
Where Spirits Have Lease...............................................SQ25
Whispers of Death (Dark Brotherhood)
Whodunit? (Dark Brotherhood)
Whom Gods Annoy........................................................SQ26
Zero Visibility
[QL02]
Quests in this section are listed by the closest major city. If you want to
know everything you can do in a city and the surrounding area, just look
through this list and then find the mini-walkthroughs for each quest. Only
side quests (i.e. not any main story, guild or daedric quests) are listed
here.
| Anvil
+-------
Ghost Ship of Anvil, The...............................................SQ06
Siren's Deception, The.................................................SQ21
Where Spirits Have Lease...............................................SQ25
| Bravil
+--------
Forlorn Watchman, The..................................................SQ05
Through a Nightmare, Darkly............................................SQ22
| Bruma
+-------
Brotherhood Betrayed, A................................................SQ02
Lifting the Vale.......................................................SQ12
Two Sides of the Coin..................................................SQ23
| Cheydinhal
+------------
| Chorrol
+---------
Canvas the Castle......................................................SQ03
Killing Field, The.....................................................SQ09
Legacy Lost............................................................SQ11
Separated at Birth.....................................................SQ18
Shadow Over Hackdirt, A................................................SQ19
Sins of the Father.....................................................SQ20
| Imperial City
+---------------
Arena, The.............................................................SQ01
Go Fish................................................................SQ07
Imperial Corruption....................................................SQ08
Order of the Virtuous Blood............................................SQ14
Origin of the Gray Prince..............................................SQ15
Repairing the Orrery (Official Mod)....................................SQ17
Unfriendly Competition.................................................SQ24
| Kvatch
+--------
| Leyawiin
+----------
Knights of the White Stallion..........................................SQ10
Mazoga the Orc.........................................................SQ13
Whom Gods Annoy........................................................SQ26
| Skingrad
+----------
Paranoia...............................................................SQ16
[XP00]
~~The Elder Scrolls IV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXPANDING YOUR GAME
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~OBLIVION~~
[XP01]
Oblivion requires some serious hardware to run well on a PC. If your computer
is not a gaming geek's dream machine, then you may have to tweak your rig to
get Oblivion running even semi-smoothly. Of course, the best option for you
may be to upgrade your PC, buy a new PC or buy an XBox 360. Even the cheapest
option (a new video card) is going to set you back $150 (US) or more, and you
may not want to spend that kind of money just to play one game.
*DISCLAIMER*
Anything you do to your PC you do at your own risk! If anything in this
section makes you scratch your head and want to call the nearest
eight-year-old for an explanation, then STOP and don't go any further. Resign
yourself to living with a less than optimal PC or go slap down a few hundred
for an X360 or a couple thou' for a pre-built gaming system from Dell or Sony.
If you follow any of the suggestions in this section, you implicitly agree to
indemnify the author from all claims arising from damage caused by following
these suggestions.
*THIS IS SERIOUS!*
Personal note: While trying to tweak my system, I accidentally disabled my
video card altogether and couldn't see anything, not even the system BIOS. I
had to dig up an old PCI video card just to get into the BIOS and reset
everything. Don't mess around with anything in this section unless you know
what you are doing! Or, more importantly, how to recover when you muck it up.
*ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR DATA*
Before attempting any of the tweaks listed, make sure you've backed up your
important files, just in case something goes horribly wrong.
To measure the framerate in Oblivion, open the console in-game by pressing the
backtick (`) key--on US English keyboards, backtick is directly left of the
numeral 1 key. Type:
tdt
press ENTER and exit the console by pressing backtick. You'll get a debug
console in the upper right corner of the screen, including framerate (FPS).
You can also download and use Fraps:
http://www.fraps.com/
When tweaking, make one change at a time and test it in the game using the
Debug console or Fraps.
Information in this section is compiled from a variety of sources, some for
games other than Oblivion.
| System Setup
+-------------
Update your PC! This includes (but is not limited to):
* Your operating system (i.e. Windows)
* Your motherboard (or mainboard) drivers
* Your video card drivers
* Your sound card drivers
To update Windows:
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
To update anything else in your system, you will need to know what you have
inside the box. If you are using a manufactured system--Dell, Sony, HP,
Alienware, etc.--visit the manufacturer's Web site and enter the serial number
of your PC (usually found on a sticker on the back of the case). You'll get a
list of the pre-installed components, and you can download a lot of the
necessary drivers (see below).
If you are using a custom-built PC, you should either know what parts you
used, or you need to ask the person who built the PC what parts were used.
Specifically, you need the *chipset* used on the motherboard (also called a
mainboard), the video card manufacturer and model number and the sound card
(if there is one) manufacturer and model number.
*IF YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE FINDING THIS INFORMATION*
Try this program:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/gtopala/about_siw.html
SIW is a self-contained program--i.e. it requires no installation, you just
download and run it--that will give you every detail you could ever want about
your PC.
To update your motherboard drivers:
You need to know what chipset is used on your motherboard. The chipset are the
components that support your CPU by handling input/output, internal
communications, hard drive connections, etc. There are four main chipsets in
use:
* Intel: http://downloadfinder.intel.com/
* nVidia: http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp
* Via: http://www.viaarena.com/
* SiS: http://www.sis.com/download/
Download and install the most recent drivers for your chipset. If you are
using an integrated sound card, also download and install the most recent
drivers for your sound from the chipset site.
To update your video card drivers:
* ATI: http://www.ati.com/
Use the most recent Catalyst drivers (v6.3 as of 2006-04-06).
There are alternate (unsupported) drivers for ATI cards:
+ Omega Drivers: http://www.omegadrivers.net/
+ DHZer0point Drivers: http://www.driverheavendownloads.net/zeropoint.htm
These alternate drivers are "pre-tweaked" for optimum performance and
quality. They may offer some performance improvement in Oblivion; they may
also produce graphics corruption or crashes. Your best bet is to stick with
the official drivers and tweak the settings yourself.
* nVidia: http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_downloads_rel70betadriver.html
Use the most recent beta drivers (v84.25 as of 2006-04-06).
There are alternate (unsupported) drivers for nVidia cards:
+ DHZer0point Drivers: http://www.driverheavendownloads.net/zeropoint.htm
These alternate drivers are "pre-tweaked" for optimum performance and
quality. They may offer some performance improvement in Oblivion; they may
also produce graphics corruption or crashes. Your best bet is to stick with
the official drivers and tweak the settings yourself.
Before installing new video card drivers, first download Driver Cleaner Pro:
http://www.drivercleaner.net/professional.html
and install it. Uninstall your existing drivers. Reboot Windows in Safe Mode
(press F8 during system boot for the boot menu and choose plain Safe Mode). In
Safe Mode, run Driver Cleaner Pro according to the program's instructions to
completely remove all traces of your old drivers. Reboot normally and install
the new drivers.
To update your sound card drivers:
If you have a separate (non-integrated) sound card, download and install the
latest drivers from the sound card manufacturer's Web site.
Final steps:
* Make sure, in your System BIOS (refer to your system or motherboard manual
to find out how to enter your BIOS), your AGP or PCI-Express port is
enabled. If you are using an AGP port, check to see at what speed (i.e. 1x,
2x, 4x or 8x) the port is set.
* Run the DirectX Diagnostic Tool (Start>Run>dxdiag). On the Display tab, make
sure DirectDraw Acceleration and Direct3D Acceleration (and AGP Texture
Acceleration if applicable) are all Enabled. If not, start over and try
installing drivers again.
* Defragment your Windows drive. Just do it. (Also defragment the Oblivion
drive if you installed it to a different drive.)
* If you have the space (and the ability), create a separate logical hard
drive (partition) of about 4-5MB in size. Make sure the new drive is empty,
then set Windows to use that drive for your global page file. (Even better
if you create the new partition on a different physical drive.) If none
of this step made sense to you, ignore it.
| Clean Boot Windows
+--------------------
Before running Oblivion, always clean boot Windows per the instructions in
this Microsoft Knowledgebase article:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310353
Be sure to disable firewall/anti-virus/anti-spam services as part of the clean
boot. Also disable any multimedia services (such as iPod or Nero)--anything
other than required system services.
| Before Tweaking
+-----------------
Start with a clean slate. Delete the Oblivion.ini file found in My
Documents\My Games\Oblivion and launch Oblivion. The game will reset all your
settings and create a new Oblivion.ini file. If you want to make any
non-graphics related changes (see Miscellaneous Tweaks below) in the INI file,
make them now. Create a backup copy of this file as a "start over" version. If
something goes badly wrong, delete the Oblivion.ini file and replace it with
your backed up copy.
| Safe Tweaks
+-------------
Ready to get started? Good. Here are video settings you can change in-game, or
by using the Options choice from the launch menu.
-> Resolution
The higher the resolution, the more pixels are needed to draw each frame.
There is an obvious correlation between this setting and your framerate.
The first thing you should do in getting Oblivion to run faster is reduce
the resolution. If you are using a widescreen monitor, be sure to select
an appropriate widescreen resolution (identified with an asterisk * in the
list of supported resolutions). If your preferred resolution is not listed,
you can still set a custom resolution in the Oblivion.ini file (see below).
-> Vertical Sync (V.Sync)
This controls the rendering of individual frames, forcing them to match up
to the refresh rate of your monitor. Turning this off will cause occasional
"tearing" of the scene--a horizontal line will run down across the screen
as the frames get out of sync with the monitor. Turning it off may give you
a performance boost. You can only turn V.Sync on/off from the Options
choice of the launch menu.
-> Fullscreen/Windowed mode
From the Options choice of the launch menu, you can choose to play Oblivion
either Fullscreen (default) or in a window. Playing in a window may give
you better performance.
-> Anti-Aliasing (AA)
AA smooths "the jaggies": jagged diagonal lines caused by too-few pixels
to adequately display the line. AA is very hard on your video card and
leaving it off will generally give you a big performance boost. At
resolutions of 1024x768 and higher, the pixels on screen are usually small
enough that AA provides little real visual advantage unless you have a
really big monitor and/or really good eyesight. Try different sampling
rates (starting with 2 samples or 2x) and seeing what the difference is in
both framerate and visual quality. At very low resolutions such as 640x480,
you may want to live with the framerate hit just to keep the picture as
smooth as possible.
-> Bloom/HDR
These are both "dynamic lighting" techniques designed to make scenes on
screen appear more realistic. Specifically, they create hot spots or
glare from certain areas whenever there is a bright light source, such
as the sun. Bloom is the older, less realistic technology, but works on
any card that runs Oblivion. HDR (High Dynamic Range) works only with
newer video cards, and cannot be used at the same time as AA*. Both will
decrease your framerate, so turn these off if you need a boost.
* On 2006-04-07, ATI released a beta version of its Catalyst drivers that
supposedly allows the use of HDR and AA when running Oblivion with a
1xxx series Radeon card (i.e. 1300, 1600, 1800, 1900). The beta is not
supported by Bethesda or ATI. Use at your own risk.
-> Texture Size: controls the size (and, thus, resolution) of textures loaded
into your video RAM. Textures are the 2-dimensional images that are wrapped
around 3-dimensional objects to make them look like a real object. (A 3D
object without a texture is just a wireframe. You can see the wireframe
using a Console Command, see below.) Large textures should only be used
if you have 256MB or more of video RAM. If, after trying everything else,
you're still trying to get a few more frames, you can set the texture size
to small.
-> Shadows: shadows are self-explanatory; however there are a bunch of set-
tings that control shadows in the game. Shadows have a significant impact
on framerate. If you are having a lot of trouble, turning shadows off
completely will help without taking too much realism from the scenes.
* Int. Shadows: this slider controls the number of objects that will cast
shadows in indoor areas. Move the slider all the way to the left to
turn off interior shadows. Move it all the way to the right to have
up to 10 objects cast a shadow.
* Ext. Shadows: works the same as Int. Shadows, but for exterior areas.
* Self Shadows: causes actors to cast shadows on themselves. Besides being
a performance hog, these shadows rarely look good and it is recommended
that all players turn these off.
* Shadows on Grass: if grass is visible, actors will cast shadows on it.
Casting shadows on a moving surface (grass blows in the wind) is sig-
nificantly harder on your hardware than other shadows. This should be
set to off by all but those with top-notch hardware.
* Tree Canopy Shadows: causes trees to cast dappled shadows on the ground.
Creates a very realistic effect, but has a big impact on framerate,
especially in heavily forested areas.
* Shadow Filtering: if set to High or Low, creates diffuse, soft-edged
shadows. If set to Off, the shadows will have hard, well-defined edges.
If you are using shadows, the High setting will be much more realistic
at the cost of frames-per-second.
-> Specular Distance: specular effects create the shininess of reflective
surfaces, such as metal (armor, weapons), glass, etc. This slider controls
the distance at which specular effects are visible. Turning it down
(effectively turning specular effects off) can provide a performance boost
on older cards.
-> Water: There are three settings that control the look of water surfaces
in the game. Individually, they have little impact on framerate, but,
combined, may give you a small boost if you're really trying to squeeze
a few more frames from the game.
* Water detail: on High causes reflected objects on the water's surface to
show in greater detail. It will hardly be noticeable unless the water is
near detailed objects (such as buildings). Normal detail will provide
a performance boost while not looking that much different in most out-
door areas.
* Water Reflections: when set to off, the water does not reflect at all,
providing a performance boost at the cost of realism. Non-reflective
water appears as a solid block of color that doesn't look much like
water at all.
* Water Ripples: not the general wind-caused rippling of the water, but
ripples caused by objects impacting the surface of the water. If you
play in 3rd-person view, turning this on lets you see your own wake as
you move through the water, at the cost of a small performance hit.
-> Grass Distance: controls the distance at which grass begins to be visible.
Setting this all the way to the left effectively turns grass off. Some
players may actually prefer not to have the grass showing. Regardless,
displaying grass has a noticeable negative effect on your framerate. There
are other ways of tweaking the grass display; see Experimental Tweaks and
Console Commands below.
-> View Distance: this slider controls the distance at which the world becomes
visible. By default, the slider is set all the way right and you can see
to the horizon. This obviously has an impact on framerate as the game has
to render all those distant objects. If you move this slider left, the
following three options (Distant Land, Distant Buildings and Distant Trees)
automatically turn off. Moving this slider left causes the stereotypical
"fog" to roll in, cutting off your view of all distant objects.
-> Distant Land: turning this off has the same effect as moving the View
Distance slider to about 50% and turns Distant Buildings and Distant Trees
off as well.
-> Distant Buildings & Distant Trees: you can turn these options off to cut
display of distant objects (buildings and tree respectively), thus gaining
some framerate without turning on the fog--i.e. you can still see to the
horizon, there just won't be much to see.
-> Tree Fade, Actor Fade, Item Fade, Object Fade: controls the distance at
which trees, actors (NPCs and creatures), items (weapons, armor, bottles,
food, etc.) and objects (buildings, barrels, crates, etc.) become visible.
Moving these sliders left can pick up some frames at the cost of seeing
objects "pop" into existence. The Actor Fade slider should be left at
default (about 1/4 from the left side) or a little higher else you won't
see enemies until they are almost on top of you.
-> Window Reflections: simply makes glass in windows appear more real. Turning
it off might give you a small performance boost, especially in towns, with-
out hurting the overall graphic experience.
-> Blood decals: controls the amount of blood in the game. Off does not get
rid of blood entirely. You will still see blood spurt after a good hit on
an opponent; however, the blood that sprays out will not stick anywhere.
Low blood decals means blood splatters show on the ground. High blood will
show on actors and items as well. Turning blood decals off can give you
a framerate boost during combat. You can further tweak the gore settings
in the INI file as shown in Experimental Tweaks below.
| Graphics Card Tweaks
+----------------------
These are general tweaks you can make to your graphics card drivers that will
benefit any game, not just Oblivion. The best way to make these tweaks is to
download a free utility program designed for this purpose:
* ATI: ATI Tray Tools (ATT)
http://www.guru3d.com/article/atitraytools/189/
* nVidia: NVTweak
http://nvtweak.laptopvideo2go.com/
-> Render-ahead: this setting controls how many frames are rendered by the
card in advance of the current frame. Reducing this to 0 (zero) can give
you a large performance boost (at the potential cost of some stability).
In NVTweak, the option is under "Additional Direct3D Setting" and is called
"Max Frames to Render Ahead". In ATT, the option is under "3D" and is
called "Flip Queue Size". If setting this option to zero causes instablity,
increase it in steps of 1 (i.e. 1, 2, 3), but don't go beyond 3, which is
the default rate.
-> Geometry instancing (ATI cards only?): using ATT, go to Tweaks>Standard
Tweaks and check the "Geometry instancing" box. This allows the video
drivers to upload a single instance of a repeated object and then clone
it rather than upload every single instance. May help some, especially in
heavily forested areas where many of the trees are copies rather than
unique models.
-> Temporal Antialiasing (ATI cards only?): you have to use the Catalyst
Control Center for this change. Open CCC, select Anti-Aliasing under 3D,
and set it to 2x or 4x. Check the Temporal Antialiasing box. This option
allows the Catalyst drivers to "cheat" a little bit and makes lower AA
settings look better. So you could, for example, run at 2x and the graphics
will look as good as normal 4x.
-> Catalyst AI (ATI cards only): turn this to High to enable the Catalyst
drivers to better optimize the frames on the fly.
-> Fast Writes (AGP cards only): you have to enable this in your BIOS and in
your graphics driver. For ATI cards, the setting is in the SmartGART tab of
the Catalyst Control Center. *THIS IS A HIGHLY UNSTABLE SETTING* It can
negatively affect your PC, so be very careful. If it does work for you, it
may produce a few glitches; however, it is also likely to produce 10-15fps
higher framerate.
| Experimental Tweaks
+---------------------
These enhancements involve editing your Oblivion.ini file. See "Before
Tweaking", above, before making any changes. Make sure you edit the INI file
in a *text* editor, such as Notepad, EditPad, UltraEdit, etc. Do not use a
word processor such as WordPad, Word, OpenOffice.org, etc. Such programs may
put unsupported characters into the file, even if you save it as Plain Text.
These are "experimental" tweaks because performance or quality increases are
not guaranteed. And even if you do get a performance or quality increase, the
tweak may introduce instability. Use at your own risk. When you're ready, open
My Documents\My Games\Oblivion\Oblivion.ini in a text editor and search for
the following items...
-> Grass: these settings help further tweak the display of grass.
* iMinGrassSize=80
Increase this number to "thin out" the clumps of grass. There's very
little visual difference, but it might give you a few extra FPS. The
normal values for tweaking range from 120 to 150.
* fGrassEndDistance=3000.0000
fGrassStartFadeDistance=2000.0000
EndDistance is the distance at which grass ceases being visible.
FadeDistance is the distance at which the grass starts fading out. If
you increase iMinGrassSize, you can extend these to the point where you
never see grass "pop" in at all. Values on the order of 8000.0000/
7000.0000 will work well. This will decrease your framerate.
* bDrawShaderGrass=1
Setting this to 0 (zero) turns off rendering of grass. A bit more "final"
than moving the in-game Grass Distance slider down to zero.
* iMaxGrassTypesPerTexure=2
Setting this to 1 (one) might give you a few extra frames per second with
no visible change in graphic quality.
-> uGridsToLoad=5
The Oblivion game world is composed of square cells. This setting controls
the number of cells that are loaded in full for each "area". The setting is
a grid arrangement centered around the PC. The default, therefore, loads a
total of 25 cells:
X X X X X
X X X X X
X X P X X
X X X X X
X X X X X
(P is the player character)
These are the cells for which all cell data is loaded. Cells beyond this
grid are not loaded in full, so you get low-resolution textures on the
landscape; and, objects, items and creatures present in that cell are not
loaded at all.
Every time you advance to the edge of the current area, a "new" area loads
and you get the Loading Area message (and, perhaps, pause) as new info is
loaded. With the default setting, this happens every time you move two
cells (see arrangement above). This also affects the size of local maps.
The larger the uGridsToLoad setting, the larger the local maps.
Interior areas are largely unaffected by this setting, as interior areas
are never 25 cells large. Exterior areas are where you'll see the biggest
changes. The number must always be an odd number so the PC can be properly
"centered" in each area. Increasing this number will:
* Reduce the number of "Loading Area" messages and pauses, unless you set
it too high for your RAM, in which case you'll actually see more "Loading
Area" messages.
* Increase the size of local maps, thus increasing the area you can view
at one time on your map--assuming you've explored the area or used the
console so the "fog of war" isn't covering the map.
* Increase the distance at which you can see fully detailed terrain.
* Decrease your framerate as your video card is forced to render all that
extra detail in distant terrain and your CPU is forced to deal with
any AI scripts on creatures in those cells.
If you have the RAM to support it (1GB or more), a setting of 7 or 9 can
reduce the number of "Loading Area" pauses without significantly cutting
into your framerate. If all you're interested in is the extra detail in
distant landscapes, better to use the LOD Landscape mod as detailed in
the Mods section below.
Note that, if you increase this setting, you should also increase the
iPreloadSizeLimit as detailed next...
-> iPreloadSizeLimit=26214400
Sets the RAM used by Oblivion to cache future objects. Size is in bytes,
default is 25MB (divide the number by 1048576). You may get a performance
increase if you raise this number. Determine how many MB of RAM you want
to commit to Oblivion, multiply that by 1048576 and enter the result.
Giving too much RAM to Oblivion may cause crashes. Try 50MB (52428800) if
you have 1GB of RAM or 100MB (104857600) if you have more than 1GB.
If you increase the uGridsToLoad setting, increase this as well so Oblivion
has plenty of RAM to load all the cells at once.
-> bDoCanopyShadowPass=1
Set this to 0 (zero) to remove all tree shadows. Can give a decent FPS
boost outdoors at the cost of realism.
-> bUseRefractionShader=1
Setting this to 0 (zero) may help users of older cards when around Oblivion
gates.
-> iSize W=640
iSize H=480
Set the width and height of the Oblivion screen (either fullscreen or
windowed). Use these settings for custom resolutions not in Oblivion's
default list.
-> iShadowMapResolution=1024
Lower this number to 128, 256 or 512 to decrease shadow resolution. At low
numbers, shadows will appear extremely blocky. You're better off running
without shadows than with low-res shadows.
-> iActorShadowIntMax=10
iActorShadowExtMax=10
This is the maximum number of shadows that can be cast indoors (Int) and
outdoors (Ext). Increase these numbers to let more objects cast shadows,
with the corresponding framerate hit.
-> bAllow30Shaders=0
Change this to 1 (one) if you have a newer video card that supports Pixel
Shader 3.0 (check your card documentation). You'll get nicer quality
graphics, and probably a slightly lower framerate.
-> bUseWaterDepth=1
Set to 0 (zero) to turn off the ability to see into water (water surface
becomes opaque). May provide a slight performance boost in outdoor areas.
-> bUseWaterReflectionsMisc=0
bUseWaterReflectionsStatics=0
bUseWaterReflectionsTrees=0
bUseWaterReflectionsActors=0
If you are using reflective water with high detail, setting these to 1
(one) will increase the number of objects that reflect in detail. Can be
a performance hit, but lends greater quality, especially around water
sources in towns.
-> bUseHardDriveCache=0
Setting to 1 (one) forces Oblivion to cache textures in your hard drive's
cache (onboard RAM) for faster access. Probably won't work unless your
system is very old/badly optimized. Use of the hard drive cache should be
controlled by Windows and your motherboard drivers. If this gives you a
performance increase, you may want to investigate why your hard drive
cache is not being used normally.
-> bEnableBoundingVolumeOcclusion=0
Setting this to 1 (one) may increase framerates in crowded interior areas,
as, supposedly, Oblivion stops processing NPCs hidden behind walls.
-> bDSoundHWAcceleration=1
Setting to 0 (zero) may provide a performance increase when using some
integrated audio chipsets.
-> bMusicEnabled=1
Set to 0 (zero) to turn off in-game music. Removes sense of immersion (and
the music is very high quality!); however, may provide a performance
increase as the game will no longer need to load, change and play music.
-> bForceFullLOD=0
Setting to 1 (one) increases level of detail within the uGridsToLoad range.
May cause a performance decrease, but increases graphic quality. If you
increase uGridsToLoad, you probably want to leave this at 0 (zero) to
minimize the framerate hit of the extra cells being loaded.
-> iThreads=3
iOpenMPLevel=10
Increasing these values may give a performance increase, but only on
multi-core or multi-CPU systems.
-> bDoSpecularPass=1
bDoDiffusePass=1
bDoAmbientPass=1
Set these to 0 (zero) if you want to play the game, but you have a very
old video card. Removes all specular effects, dynamic lighting and ambient
lighting, producing a very cartoonish look. Compare this:
http://www.papagamer.com/images/stories/oblivion/specular_on.jpg
with this:
http://www.papagamer.com/images/stories/oblivion/specular_off.jpg
Changing these settings can also produce graphic anomalies and crashes.
Use these only if you can't get out of single-digit framerates even with
all the other optimizations. If you do change these, you need to use this
mod:
http://www.tessource.net/files/file.php?id=2019
to fix crashes caused by not performing the specular pass.
| Miscellaneous Tweaks
+----------------------
These tweaks to the INI file won't improve your framerates, but may improve
your overall enjoyment of the game.
-> SMainMenuMovie=
SMainMenuMovieIntro=
SIntroSequence=
Blank these three entries to get rid of, respectively, the animated back-
ground in the main game menu; the logo animation that occurs right after
the main menu has loaded and the opening series of company logos that
show when you launch the game. Getting rid of MainMenuMovie may help if
you are experiencing mouse lag in the main menu.
-> bHealthBarShowing=1
If set to 1 (one), shows a standard health bar over a creature rather than
the curved bar over the crosshair.
-> fGlobalTimeMultiplier=1.0000
Changes the rate at which time passes in the game. Decrease the number to
slow down time; increase it to speed up time.
-> bAllowConsole=1
If set to 1 (one), allows use of the Command Console in game.
-> bAllowScreenShot=1
If set to 1 (one), allows you to take screenshots using the Print Screen
key. Screenshots are saved to your Oblivion installation folder in bitmap
(.bmp) format. Due to a glitch in the game, you cannot take screenshots
when using AntiAliasing. If you wish to take screenshots with AA, use FRAPS
http://www.fraps.com/
-> SScreenShotBaseName=ScreenShot
iScreenShotIndex=0
Determines the base name of screenshot files and the starting index number.
Using these defaults, screenshots would be named ScreenShot0.bmp,
ScreenShot1.bmp, ScreenShot2.bmp, etc.
-> fDefaultFOV=75.0000
Sets the default Field of View for the game, in degrees. The default is 75.
A normal range of values is 60 - 90. You can also change this with the
Command Console, to experiment, then set this to your favorite view so
Oblivion will always run at that camera angle.
-> bInstantLevelUp=0
Change this to 1 (one) to level up as soon as you gain 10 ranks in your
major skills. Removes the need to rest in a bed.
-> bPrecipitation=1
Setting to 0 (zero), turns off all precipitation (rain, snow).
-> iDebugText=12
Changes the information displayed when using the debug console command.
Option 12 shows just FPS. Option 0 shows a lot of information, including
the day of the week, the date (both in normal units, such as Monday,
10/12/433) and two clocks: one game time and one playing time. While the
debug information is showing, you can press Scroll Lock to change the
information until you find the display that most suits your taste. You can
also set the debug page displayed using the SDT console command.
-> Gore settings:
* fDecalLifetime=10.0000
Determines the length blood splatters last on objects. Default is 10
seconds. Increase to have blood stick around longer.
* iMaxDecalsPerFrame=10
Determines the number of blood splatters you can get. Increase for more
blood.
-> fDifficulty=0.0000
Gives greater control over your difficulty level than the slider in the
game. Range is -1.0000 to 1.0000. Thus, 0.0000 is 50% difficulty (default).
Set to -0.5000 for 25% difficulty, for example, or 0.5000 for 75%.
[XP02]
To use the in-game console, enable the console by setting bAllowConsole equal
to 1 (one) in the Oblivion.ini file. In the game, press the backtick (`) key
(just left of the number one key on US English keyboards) to open the console.
Type a command and press ENTER. Press backtick again to close the console.
This is an abbreviated list of the most useful console commands. A full list
is available at:
http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Category:Console_Functions
In the following list, brackets [] surround arguments you have to replace when
using the command. Do not type the brackets when using the command. For
example:
modpcs [skill] [#]
should be typed as:
modpcs Athletics 100
when used in the console.
Some of these commands require that you enter a hex code for an item or spell.
You can find a full list of these codes at:
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionCheats.List
Alpha characters in hex codes should be entered in uppercase. I.e. enter
00185FE2 rather than 00185fe2.
Command | Description
--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
FOV [#] | Changes the default field of view to angle [#]
--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
modpcs [skill] [#] | Adds [#] to PC's [skill]
--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
modpca [attribute] [#] | Adds [#] to PC's [attribute]
--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
movetoqt | Instantly transports you to your current quest
| target
--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
player.additem [hex] [#] | Adds [#] of item [hex] to your inventory.
| Example, gold is hex 0000000F, so to give yourself
| 5,000 gold, type player.additem 0000000F 5000
--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
player.addspell [hex] | Adds spell [hex] to your list of known spells.
--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
player.payfine | Pays your bounty so guards leave you alone
--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
player.removespell [hex] | Removes spell [hex] from your list of spells.
| This is the only way to get rid of older, less-
| powerful spells. Does not work on custom spells,
| only standard spells you've purchased from a
| spell merchant.
--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
RefreshINI | Refreshes INI settings without quitting/restarting
| Useful during tweaking
--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
SaveGame [filename] | Saves game with given [filename], use if you don't
| like the default filenames
--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
SDT [#] | Set's the debug console display to the specified
| page number. Some useful pages: 0, 2 and 12
--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
SetINI [setting] [value] | Sets an INI [setting] to [value], example:
| SetINI fGlobalTimeMultiplier 1.5000
--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
showbirthsignmenu | Brings up the birthsign menu, allowing you to
| change your sign*
--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
showclassmenu | Brings up the class menu, allowing you to change
| your class*
--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
showracemenu | Brings up the race menu, allowing you to change
| your name, gender and race*
* Using the class, race and birthsign menus after you've been playing for a
while may reset all your attributes and skill levels and/or cause your
skills to stop increasing. If you're really unhappy with your character,
best to start over.
--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
TAI | Toggles AI, use this to cause all NPCs and mon-
| sters to stand still (for screenshots or easy
| kills)
--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
TDT | Toggles debug console
--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
TFOW | Toggles the fog of war that obscures the map
--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
TG | Toggles grass, use this if you normally have
| grass visible, but are lagging badly in some
| outdoor combat
--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
TGM | Toggles "god mode"
--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
TM | Toggles menus (turn them off for clean screen-
| shots)
--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
TMM [0/1] | Toggles the map markers, 0=all off, 1=all on
| Turning all map markers on puts all the markers on
| the world map and lets you Fast Travel to them,
| just as if you had discovered them; turning them
| off turns off even those markers you discovered
| yourself prior to using the console
--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
TWF | Toggles wireframe mode, letting you see the under-
| lying 3D models of the game world
--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
unlock | After opening the console, click a locked chest
| or door and enter this command to unlock it
--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------
[XP03]
| Official Mods
+---------------
Bethesda Softworks is hard-at-work releasing new, official content for
Oblivion. To date, 2006-04-25, they have released three mods. These mods are
not free, but are available to XBox360 owners as well as PC users.
-> Horse Armor DLC1: $1.99 (PC), 250 Marketplace points (XBox 360)
This mod adds two types of barding (horse armor) to the game: elven (gold
color) and steel. Both types are available at Chestnut Handy Stables
(outside the west gate to Imperial City) from Snak gra-Bura
Comments:
Even though it's only two bucks, it's not worth the download. Horses are an
affectation, not a necessity, and the armor doesn't do a whole lot of good
since you still can't fight from your horse. Does look pretty, but that's
about it. For vanity players only.
-> Orrery DLC2: $1.89 (PC), 150 Marketplace points (XBox 360)
Adds a simple step-n-fetch quest, Repairing the Orrery, to the game
(details in the Side Quests section of this guide). After finishing the
quest, you have access to the Imperial Orrery, which will grant you a
Greater Power depending on the phase of the moon.
Comments:
It's OK. The quest is very simplistic and the Powers granted by the Orrery
are not hugely useful. (They all Fortify one attribute by 20 and Drain
another by 20 for a total of 60 seconds.) Overall, not a huge addition,
and probably not worth the money.
-> Wizard's Tower DLC3: $1.89 (PC), 150 Marketplace points (XBox 360)
Adds Frostcrag Spire to the game, and gives you a deed to the place.
Frostcrag is a wizard's tower with a garden full of alchemical ingredients,
including many from Oblivion, an enchanting altar, a spellmaking altar,
the ability to summon an atronach (storm, fire or frost) servant and an
alchemical table that boosts your Alchemy skill by 15 when you stand near
it. In order to get the tower functioning, you have to buy the materials
from a newly added merchant in Imperial City. This merchant also buys/sells
alchemical ingredients and potions and recharges enchanted items.
Comments:
Definitely worth the money for the plant conservatory alone. Characters
who want to enchant and craft spells without joining the Mage's Guild will
also find a lot to like. It's quite expensive (around 15,000 Septims) to
get the place up-and-running, but it is a nice house, so, in that respect,
it's cheaper than buying and furnishing a house elsewhere. Also includes
a ton of books and a vault guarded by imps. Plus, there's no fighting to
get it.
The Web site for PC downloads of the official mods is:
http://obliviondownloads.com/
PC users: After purchasing, downloading and installing the mods, look in your
Oblivion\Data folder (by default, this is in C:\Program Files\Bethesda
Softworks\). You'll see DLC[Name].bsa and DLC[Name].esp files (where [Name] is
the name of the mod, e.g. DLCOrrery.bsa) and a DLCList.txt file. Backup these
files somewhere else (and/or burn them to CD). If you need to re-install
Oblivion, or install it on another PC, you can re-install these mods just by
copying these .bsa, .esp and .txt files to your Oblivion\Data folder--without
having to activate the installer.
| Fan Mods (PC Only)
+-------------------
The modding community for the PC version of Oblivion is very active. The
following sites contain most of the mods made for this game:
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.List
http://www.tessource.net/files/
http://www.oblivionsource.com/?page=modforge&op=viewcategories_list
There are many more fan sites that have mods available, but most end up on one
of these sites. The Oblivion Mod Wiki:
http://www.tescreens.be/oblivionmodwiki/index.php/Category:Mods
is a comprehensive database with pointers to a lot of mods (approximately 600
as of 2006-04-24).
Some recommended mods...
-> BTMod
http://btmod.beider.org/
Many improvements to the game's user interface, especially menus.
-> Landscape LOD Replacement
http://www.tessource.net/files/file.php?id=2182
Replaces the compressed textures normally used for distant landscape with
uncompressed textures. Provides a big increase in graphic quality with
almost no performance hit. Compare this:
http://cavesites.com/sewer_exit_old.jpg
with this:
http://cavesites.com/sewer_exit.jpg
If you use this mod, do not change the uGridsToLoad value in the INI (leave
it at 5).
-> Fasthorse
http://www.tessource.net/files/file.php?id=2171
Gradually increases the speed of your horse as you ride (up to +8 Speed).
-> Face/Eyes combo
http://www.tessource.net/files/file.php?id=2083
Merges "More Natural Faces" (higher resolution face textures), with
various eye mods (more eye color selections) with a couple of other
appearance-related mods. Very nice for those who want just the right
look for their PC.
-> Oblivion INI Tweaker
http://www.tessource.net/files/file.php?id=1937
Not really a mod, just a small program that lets you make many of the INI
changes listed in this guide via a series of checkboxes. Highly recommended
if you don't want to mess around with the INI file directly.
-> Despie's Oblivion Compilation
http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=333040
A combo mod with a lot of game-enhancing mods included, some of which are
on this recommended list.
-> Kobu's Character Advancement System
http://www.tessource.net/files/file.php?id=1888
Changes the way your skills, attributes and class levels increase. Removes
the need to do lots of number crunching to be sure you get your +5 modi-
fiers each class level. Also contains other gameplay-improvment mods,
including a health modifier, skill advancement modifiers and a change
to your character's total encumbrance.
-> More Merchant Money (Balanced)
http://www.tessource.net/files/file.php?id=2387
Got a 12,000 septim item you don't want, but no merchant has the money to
pay you what it's worth? This mod takes care of that without just giving
each merchant a fortune.
-> Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul
http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=348431
Completely changes the nature of the game by changing how the leveled
system works. Provides a greater sense of power when you finally reach
the point where common bandits are no longer a problem rather than still
a match for you. Also presents uncertainty, since you may now wander into
a situation in which you are the weaker participant. For experienced
players only.
-> Quest Award Leveling
http://www.tessource.net/files/file.php?id=2119
Normally, the rewards--especially equipment, spells and the like--you
receive from quests are scaled to your level. This means if you complete
a certain quest early, you get stuck with a low-power version of the
reward that becomes useless later in the game. This mod causes all these
special leveled rewards to increase in level as you increase in level,
allowing you to enjoy the full benefit of the reward without having to
know in advance when you should complete the quest in order to get the
best reward.
-> Khajiit Night Eye Toggle
http://www.tessource.net/files/file.php?id=1797
Changes the Khajiit Night Eye unlimited-use special power to an on/off
toggle.
-> Fathis Fix
http://www.tessource.net/files/file.php?id=2106
Fixes some bugs with the Thieves Guild fence, Fathis Ules.
-> Ring of the Vipereye Fix
http://www.tessource.net/files/file.php?id=2400
Changes the quest reward, Ring of the Vipereye (from "Lifting the Vale")
to a non-quest item so you can sell it, stow it away, or whatever.
--The Elder Scrolls IV-------------------------------------------------------
VERSION HISTORY & CREDITS
-------------------------------------------------------------------OBLIVION--
v1.00 2006-05-01
- First published version
Written and Copyright 2006 by Barry Scott Will
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike
License. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/